Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis

said the Indians formerly built their council houses upon them. Some of these circular mounds, as we have seen in a previous chapter, were ascended by spiral pathways, winding round them, as round a shaft, from base to summit. Indeed, it would be impossible to describe all the various forms which these structures assume; their general character is however sufficiently illustrated by the preceding examples. It often happens that the temple mounds of the South have other mounds upon their summits. This is especially the case with the large pyramidal structures. An example is furnished in the great Seltzertown mound, which is covered with a number of smaller ones. [Illustration: Fig. 66.—GROUP OF SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS] FOOTNOTES: [114] Notes on the Antiquities of the Mississippi Valley, by H. H. Breckenridge, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1813; Views of Louisiana, p. 172, Latrobe, vol. ii, p. 250; Featherstonhaugh’s Travels in North America, p. 66. [115] There is an elevation of earth not far from Chicago, in the northern part of Illinois, which was supposed, for many years, to be of artificial origin. It is well known as Mount Joliet. It appears, however, from all direct information that can be gathered concerning it, that it is simply a natural eminence of regular outline. So far as we are informed, there are no traces of a great ancient population in that vicinity, such as we almost invariably find accompanying the more imposing aboriginal monuments. [116] On the authority of Charles Sullivan, Esq., Marietta, Ohio. [117] The description of this mound is from the RAFINESQUE MSS. The section purports to have been made by a Mr. Ewing. [118] RAFINESQUE MSS. The survey of this singular monument purports to have been made in 1820. The then proprietor was a Mr. Ship, the position of whose residence is shown in the plan. [119] RAFINESQUE MSS., 1818. [120] Mounds placed in this manner are of occasional occurrence in the more northern States. Examples have been remarked in Illinois and Missouri. Twelve miles south-west of the town of Glasgow, Barren county, Kentucky, a group is found. The mounds are small, oval, and placed at intervals of about fifty yards, so as to constitute a circle of perhaps fifteen hundred feet in circumference. In the centre of the circular area is a large mound between twenty and thirty feet in height. These mounds appear to have sustained structures of some kind.—«Collins’s Kentucky», p. 176. [p178]