four hundred and fifty yards in length. It commences at the creek, near the mill, and curves around northward to the creek again, taking in about four acres of land, on which stands a mound covering about half an acre of ground, and rising eighteen feet above the level of the field. Be

tween the wall and the creek is a trench, plainly to be seen, from where the earth was taken to build the mound and wall. The wall at its north end is about fifteen feet in height, but diminishes in elevation as it approaches the creek near the mill, where it is barely traceable. The mound at this fortification has been thoroughly examined,

and found to contain a vast amount of human bones; in fact, the mound appears to have been almost made of human bodies.

Near Hester's mill, in the north-west corner of the county, are some considerable earth-works.

Several years ago an oval-shaped piece of lodestone was taken from one of the mounds at this place. It is about the size of a hen-egg, and so nicely dressed that when suspended by a string one of its ends points north and the other south.

A short distance below Savannah, in the river bottom, are several mounds and much sign of the

ancient builders. But the most remarkable fabrics of that pre-historic race are on the east bank of the river, where Savannah now stands. At this place a ridge of high land makes to the river between two ravines, the mouths of which are nearly one mile apart. A line of fourteen mounds runs parallel with the river from one ravine to the other, some of them covering half an acre of ground, and rising from ten to thirty feet above the common level. These mounds stand back about seven hundred feet from the turn of the bluff, and are of different sizes, the largest and tallest occupying a position near the middle of the line. A zigzag wall of earth, accompanied by a deep trench, commences at the mouth of one ravine and curves around to the mouth of the other, taking in the mounds and a considerable amount of country back of them. Several years ago, while a citizen of Savannah was examining one of these mounds, he found a copper wedge and eight copper pulleys. The wedge is about four inches long and half an inch at the thicker end, and the wheels of the pulleys are about an inch and a-half in diameter and one inch thick. Here certainly

was a city of the Mound Builders. The wall, perhaps, was erected for purposes of self-defense and the mounds for watch-towers or houses. Some think that here was the Indian town where De Soto stopped for several months while on his way to discover the "Father of Waters," and that he left the wedge and pulleys, and the Indians buried them in the mound. This supposition may be true, but we have no history telling us that De Soto went as far down the Tennessee River as Savannah.

As far as we have examined the mounds in this county, we find that many of them contain charcoal in the center of their base. This causes some to believe they were thrown up for places of habitation. Whether this be true or false, we cannot tell. Some think the bones found in these mounds were deposited by the Mound Builders. This we cannot believe, from the fact that the bones found in many of them are in too good a state of preservation to be contemporary with the mounds. They certainly were deposited by the present race of Indians.

"Who were the Mound Builders?" is a question that has not yet been answered. And scien

tific men have so far failed to tell us for what purpose these fabrics were erected. The oldest Indian cannot tell. He says they were here when he came, These ancient people have disappeared and left nothing but mounds and walls of earth for us to guess at the time of their habitation in this country.

5