Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 21 June to November 1860 . deep. This peninsula iselevated sixty feet above the waters of the creek,with precipitous banks, and overlooks the low bottoms which surround it. Across the neckof this peninsula is carried a crescent-shapedw^all, with an outer ditch; the former is nowonly about three feet high, and the latter of corre-sponding depth. Formerly the wall was muchhigher, precluding cultivation; but the presentoccupant of the land has plowed along it longi-tudinally, throwing the furrows into the ditch,and will soon obliterate it entirely. A singlegat
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 21 June to November 1860 . deep. This peninsula iselevated sixty feet above the waters of the creek,with precipitous banks, and overlooks the low bottoms which surround it. Across the neckof this peninsula is carried a crescent-shapedw^all, with an outer ditch; the former is nowonly about three feet high, and the latter of corre-sponding depth. Formerly the wall was muchhigher, precluding cultivation; but the presentoccupant of the land has plowed along it longi-tudinally, throwing the furrows into the ditch,and will soon obliterate it entirely. A singlegate-Avay, twenty feet wide, leads into the in-closure, which has an area of about twenty-fiveacres. The creek, at one time, unquestionablyran close under the banks of the peninsula; butwhether or not the recession of the stream, leav-ing the intervening low bottom, took placesubsequently to the erection of the work, it isnow impossible to determine. In this work willbe remarked a lapping round of the wall, on the ANCIENT MONUMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 25 SCALE. the sides toward the river and next to Big-Runare inaccessibly steep, and between sixty andseAenty feet high. The area embraced withinthe exterior line of wall is a trifle less thaneighteen acres. The defensive purposes of thework will hardly be called in question. It seemsprobable that the high mound over which theinner wall is carried was designed as a look-out oralarm post, as well as a kind of citadel, com-manding the second line of defense. There remains to be considered another varietyof works in which defensive features predominate,but which seem rather to have been fortifiedtowns or villages than strongholds or citadels forfinal resort in case of danger. The natural con-ditions favorable for structures of the latter de-scription, high hills, difficult of access, away fromgrounds most fertile and easy of cultivation, etc.,etc., are not those most favorable for permanentresidence in time of peace. It is not impossib
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