Travels in America and Italy, Volume 1

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Page 239 - On each side are three openings, at equal distances, resembling twelve gateways. The entrances at the middle are the largest, particularly on the side next to the Muskingum. From this outlet is a covert way, formed of two parallel walls of earth, two hundred and thirty-one feet distant from each other, measured from centre to centre.
Page 239 - ... feet high, near which are four small excavations at equal distances, and opposite each other. At the southwest corner of the fort is a semicircular parapet, crowned with a mound, which guards the opening in the wall. Towards the southeast, is a smaller fort, containing 20 acres, with a gateway in the centre of each side and at each corner. These gateways are defended by circular mounds.
Page 242 - ... these openings. The extreme care of the authors of these works to protect and defend every part of the circle is no where visible about this square fort. The former is defended by two high walls — the latter by one. The former has a deep ditrli encircling it — this has none. The former could be entered at one place only — this at eight, and those about twenty feet broad.
Page 113 - One evening, on entering one of these singular inns, I was astounded at the sight of an immense bed constructed in a circular form round a post. Each traveller came and took his place in this bed, with his feet to the post in the centre, and his head at the circumference of the circle, so that the sleepers were ranged symmetrically, like the spokes of a wheel, or the sticks of a fan.
Page 96 - He promised to deliver, and he fettered them ; he secluded himself from them ; they withdrew from him. The kings of Egypt placed their sepulchral pyramids not among flourishing fields, but amid sterile sands; those vast tombs stand like eternity in the desert: in their image Buonaparte built the monument of his renown.
Page 240 - The inner wall was of clay, taken up probably in the northern part of the fort, where was a low place, and is still considerably lower than any other part of the work. The outside wall was taken from the ditch which is between these walls, and is alluvial, consisting of pebbles worn smooth in water, and sand, to a very considerable depth, more than 50 feet at least.
Page 239 - I picked up a considerable number of fragments of ancient potters' ware. This ware is ornamented with lines, some of them quite curious and ingenious, on the outside. It is composed of clay and fine gravel and has a partial glazing on the inside. It seems to have been burnt, and capable of holding liquids.
Page 236 - ... sometimes lofty mounds, which owe their origin to a people far more civilized than our Indians, but far less so than Europeans. These works are interesting, on many accounts, to the antiquarian, the philosopher, and the divine ; especially when we consider the immense extent of country which they cover, the great labour which they cost their authors, the acquaintance with the useful arts which...
Page 183 - America among all the nations of the earth those who pay the greatest veneration for the dead? In national calamities the first thing they think of is to save the treasures of the tomb ; they recognize no legal property but where the remains of ancestors have been interred. When the Indians have pleaded their right of possession they have always employed this argument which in their opinion was irrefragable : " Shall we say to the bones of our fathers — Rise and follow us to a strange land...
Page 251 - The fortification stands on a plain, nearly horizontal, about 236 feet above the level of the river, between two branches, with very steep and deep banks. The openings in the walls are the gateways. The plain extends eastward along the State road, nearly level, about half a mile. The fortification, on all sides, except the east and west, where the road runs, is surrounded with precipices nearly in the shape of the wall.

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