second growth. The trenches were in some cases deep and wide, and in others shallow and narrow; and the breastworks varied in altitude from three to eight feet. They sometimes had one, and sometimes two entrances, as was to be inferred from there being no ditch at those places. When the works were protected by a deep ravine or a large stream of water no ditch was to be seen. The areas of these forts varied from two to six acres; and the form was generally an irregular elipsis; and in some of them fragments of earthenware and pulverized substances, supposed to have been originally human bones, were to be found. "These fortifications, thus diffused over the interior of our country, have been generally considered as surpassing the skill, patience, and industry of the Indian race, and various hypotheses have been advanced to prove them of European origin. "An American writer of no inconsiderable repute pronounced some years ago that the two forts at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, one covering forty and the other twenty acres, were erected by Ferdinand de Soto, who landed with 1000 men in Florida in 1539, and penetrated a considerable distance into the interior of the country. He allotted the large fort for the use of the Spanish army; and after being extremely puzzled how to dispose of the small one in its vicinity, he at last assigned it to the swine that generally, as he says, attended the Spaniards in those days-being in his opinion very necessary, in order to prevent them from becoming estrays, and to protect them from the depredations of the Indians. "When two ancient forts, one containing six and the other three acres, were found in Lexington in Kentucky, another theory was propounded; and it was supposed that they were erected by the descendants of the Welsh colonists who are said to have migrated under the auspices of Madoc to this country, in the twelfth century; that they formerly inhabited Kentucky; but, being attacked by the Indians, were forced to take refuge near the sources of the Missouri. "Another suggestion has been made, that the French, in their expeditions from Canada to the Mississippi, were the authors of these works; but the most numerous are to be found in the territory of the Senecas, whose hostility to the French was such, that they were not allowed for a long time to have any footing among them.* The fort at Niagara was obtained from them by the intrigues and eloquence of Joncaire, an adopted child of the nation.† "Lewis Dennie, a Frenchman, aged upward of seventy, and who had been settled and married among the Confederates for more than half a century, told me (1810) that, according to the traditions of the ancient Indians, these forts were erected by an army of Spaniards, who were the first Europeans ever seen by them-the * 1 Colden, p. 61. + 3 Charlevoix, letter 15, p. 227. French the next-then the Dutch-and, finally, the English; that this army first appeared at Oswego in great force; and penetrated through the interior of the country, searching for the precious metals; that they continued there two years, and went down the Ohio. "Some of the Senecas told Mr. Kirkland, the missionary, that those in their territory were raised by their ancestors in their wars with the western Indians, three, four, or five hundred years ago. All the cantons have traditions that their ancestors came originally from the west; and the Senecas say that theirs first settled in the country of the Creeks. The early histories mention that the Iroquois first inhabited on the north side of the great lakes; that they were driven to their present territory in a war with the Algonkins or Adirondacks, from whence they expelled the Satanas. If these accounts are correct, the ancestors of the Senecas did not, in all probability, occupy their present territory at the time they allege. "I believe we may confidently pronounce that all the hypotheses which attribute those works to Europeans are incorrect and fanciful -first, on account of the present number of the works; secondly, on account of their antiquity; having from every appearance, been erected a long time before the discovery of America; and, finally, their form and manner are totally variant from European fortifications, either in ancient or modern times. "It is equally clear that they were not the work of the Indians. Until the Senecas, who are renowned for their national vanity, had seen the attention of the Americans attracted to these erections, and had invented the fabulous account of which I have spoken, the Indians of the present day did not pretend to know anything about their origin. They were beyond the reach of all their traditions, and were lost in the abyss of unexplored antiquity. "The erection of such prodigious works must have been the result of labor far beyond the patience and perseverance of our Indians; and the form and materials are entirely different from those which they are known to make. These earthen walls, it is supposed, will retain their original form much longer than those constructed with brick and stone. They have undoubtedly been greatly diminished by the washing away of the earth, the filling up of the interior, and the accumulation of fresh soil: yet their firmness and solidity indicate them to be the work of some remote age. Add to this, that the Indians have never practiced the mode of fortifying by intrenchments. Their villages or castles were protected by palisades, which afford a sufficient defence aginst Indian weapons. When Cartier went to Hochelaga, now Montreal, in 1535, he discovered a town of the Iroquois, or Hurons, containing about fifty huts. It was encompassed with three lines of palisadoes, through which was one entrance, well secured with stakes and bars. On the inside was a rampart of timber, to which were ascents by ladders; and heaps of stones were laid in proper places to cast at an enemy. Charlevoix and other writers agree in representing the Indian fortresses as fabricated with wood. Such, also, were the forts of Sassacus, the great chief of the Pequots; and the principal fortress of the Narragansets was on an island in a swamp, of five or six acres of rising land: the sides were made with palisades set upright, encompassed with a hedge of a rod in thickness.* "I have already alluded to the argument for the great antiquity of those ancient forts to be derived from the number of concentric circles. On the ramparts of one of the Muskingum forts, 463 were ascertained on a tree decayed at the centre; and there are likewise the strongest marks of a former growth of a similar size. would make those works near a thousand years old. This "But there is another consideration which has never before been urged, and which appears to me to be not unworthy of attention. It is certainly novel, and I believe it to be founded on a basis which cannot easily be subverted. "From the Genesee near Rochester to Lewiston on the Niagara, there is a remarkable ridge or elevation of land running almost the whole distance, which is seventy-eight miles, and in a direction from east to west. Its general altitude above the neighbouring land is thirty feet, and its width varies considerably; in some places it is not more than forty yards. Its elevation above the level of Lake Ontario is perhaps 160 feet, to which it decends with a gradual slope; and its distance from that water is between six and ten miles. This remarkable strip of land would appear as if intended by nature for the purpose of an easy communication. It is, in fact, a stupendous natural turnpike, descending gently on each side, and covered with gravel; and but little labour is requisite to make it the best road in the United States. When the forests between it and the lake are cleared, the prospect and scenery which will be afforded from a tour on this route to the Cataract of Niagara will surpass all competition for sublimity and beauty, variety and number. "There is every reason to believe that this remarkable ridge was the ancient boundary of this great lake. The gravel with which it is covered was deposited there by the waters; and the stones everywhere indicate by their shape the abrasion and agitation produced by that element. All along the borders of the western rivers and lakes there are small mounds or heaps of gravel of a conical form, erected by the fish for the protection of their spawn; these fishbanks are found in a state that cannot be mistaken, at the foot of the ridge, on the side towards the lake; on the opposite side none have been discovered. All rivers and streams which enter the lake from the south have their mouths effected with sand in a peculiar way, from the prevalence and power of the northwesterly winds. The points of the creeks which pass through this ridge correspond exactly in appearance with the entrance of the streams into the lakes. These * Mather's Magnalia, p. 693. facts evince beyond doubt that Lake Ontario has, perhaps, one or two thousand years ago, receded from this elevated ground. And the cause of this retreat must be ascribed to its having enlarged its former outlet, or to its imprisoned waters (aided, probably, by an earthquake) forcing a passage down the present bed of the St. Lawrence, as the Hudson did at the Highlands, and the Mohawk at Little Falls. On the south side of this great ridge, in its vicinity, and in all directions through this country, the remains of numerous forts are to be seen; but on the north side, that is, on the side towards the lake, not a single one has been discovered, although the whole ground has been carefully explored. Considering the distance to be, say seventy miles in length, and eight in breadth, and that the border of the lake is the very place that would be selected for habitation, and consequently for works of defence, on account of the facilities it would afford for subsistence, for safety, and all domestic accommodations and military purposes; and that on the south shores of Lake Erie these ancient fortresses exist in great number, there can be no doubt that these works were erected when this ridge was the southern boundary of Lake Ontario, and, consequently, that their origin must be sought in a very remote age. "A great part of North America was then inhabited by populous nations, who had made considerable advances in civilization. These numerous works could never have been supplied with provisions without the aid of agriculture. Nor could they have been constructed without the use of iron or copper, and without a perseverance, labour, and design which demonstrate considerable progress in the arts of civilized life. A learned writer has said, "I perceive no reason why the Asiatic North might not be an officina virorum, as well as the European. The overteeming country to the east of the Riphæan Mountains must find it necessary to discharge its inhabitants. The first great wave of people was forced forward by the next to it, more tumid and more powerful than itself: successive and new impulses continually arriving, short rest was given to that which spread over a more eastern tract: disturbed again and again, it covered fresh regions. At length, reaching the farthest limits of the old world, it found a new one, with ample space to occupy, unmolested for ages."* After the north of Asia had thus exhausted its exuberant population by such a great migration, it would require a very long period of time to produce a co-operation of causes sufficient to effect another. The first mighty stream of people that flowed into America must have remained free from external pressure for ages. Availing themselves of this period of tranquility, they would devote themselves to the arts of peace, make rapid progress in civilization, and acquire an immense population. In course of time discord and war would rage among them, and compel the establishment of places of security. At last, they became alarmed by the * 1 Pennant's Arctic Zoology, 260. irruption of a horde of barbarians, who rushed like an overwhelming flood from the north of Asia “A Multitude, like which the populous North pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the South, and spread "The great law of self-preservation compelled them to stand on their defence, to resist these ruthless invaders, and to construct numerous and extensive works for protection. And for a long series of time the scale of victory was suspended in doubt, and they firmly withstood the torrent; but, like the Romans in the decline of their empire, they were finally worn down and destroyed by successive inroads and renewed attacks. And the fortifications of which we have treated are the only remaining monuments of these ancient and exterminated nations. This is perhaps, the airy nothing of imagination, and may be reckoned the extravagant dream of a visionary mind: but may we not, considering the wonderful events of the past and present times, and the inscrutable dispensations of an overruling Providence, may we not look forward into futurity, and without departing from the rigid laws of probability, predict the occurrence of similar scenes at some remote period of time? And, perhaps, in the decrepitude of our empire, some transcendant genius, whose powers of mind shall only be bounded by that impenetrable circle which prescribes the limits of human nature,† may rally the barbarous nations of Asia under the standard of a mighty empire. Following the track of the Russian colonies and commerce towards the northwest coast, and availing himself of the navigation, arms, and military skill of civilized nations, he may, after subverting the neighbouring despotisms of the Old World, bend his course towards European America. The destinies of our country may then be decided on the waters of the Missouri or on the banks of Lake Superior. And if Asia shall then revenge upon our posterity the injuries we have inflicted upon her sons, a new, a long, and a gloomy night of Gothic darkness will set in upon mankind. And when, after the efflux of ages, the returning effulgence of intellectual light shall again gladden the nations, then the widespread ruins of our cloud-capped towers, of our solemn temples, and of our magnificent cities, will, like the works of which we have treated, become the subject of curious research and elaborate investigation." At the early period at which Mr. Clinton advanced the theory that the Ridge Road was once the southern shore of Lake Ontario-1811 —when settlement was but just begun, and a dense forest precluded a close observation, he was quite liable to fall into the error, that * Milton's Paradise Lost. + Roscoe's Lorenzo de Medicis, 241. |