ART. XII.-Archeologia Americana.-Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Vol. I. Worcester, 8vo, pp. 436. 1820.

IT may at first seem singular, that an association should be formed for exploring the antiquities of a country, the discovery of which, in a wilderness state, and inhabited only by savage tribes, is an event so recent, that the appellation of the New World,' which was then given it, is still retained as appropriate; and which possesses no architectural ruins, no statues, sculptures, and inscriptions, like those of the Old World. Destitute, however, as North America may be of any such monuments of art, and of former grandeur, there are topics, connected with its original population and unwritten history, to excite the inquiries and occupy the researches of the learned. Notwithstanding the ingenious hypotheses of D'Acosta, Hornius, De Laet, and Grotius, and the opinions of Robertson, Pennant, and Clavigero, the question, whence America was first peopled, has never been satisfactorily answered. The subject has acquired increased interest by the discovery of ancient mounds and works of vast extent on the borders of the rivers west of the Alleghany mountains, indicative of an immense population in a region since overgrown with forests; and of being erected by a people who had made greater advances in the arts and in improvement, than the present race of Indians, or than their ancestors, since the Europeans have been acquainted with them. The savage nations of the wilds possess no tradition concerning their New Series, No. 6.

Another evidence, that new as America is among the nations, it furnishes subjects for antiquarian investigation, arises from the languages spoken by the natives. This subject has lately excited considerable attention. The New views of the origin of the tribes and nations of America,' by Dr. Barton, illustrated by Comparative vocabularies ;'-the Historical account of the Indian nations,' by the venerable Heckewelder; the ingenious discussions of Mr. Du Ponceau; -and the learned Essay on a uniform orthography of the Indian languages of North America,' by Mr. Pickering, are likely to furnish important aid, in ascertaining from what stock of the Old World the New was originally peopled.

The aid which is furnished by the volume before us to these interesting topics of investigation is ample, and will be received by the public with grateful acknowledgments. The AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY owes its origin and much of its success to the exertions and the munificence of the individual, who sustains the office of its president, Isaiah Thomas Esq. of Worcester. It obtained an act of incorporation October 24, 1812. Its immediate and peculiar design is to discover the antiquities of our own continent; to preserve relics and implements of the Aborigines; and to collect manuscript and printed documents and books, relating to the early settlement and subsequent history of the country. To further these objects, its founder, at its first organization, made a donation to the society of a large collection of books; and in 1819 its library contained about 5000 volumes, including the remains of the library formerly belonging to Drs. Increase and Cotton Mather, the most ancient in Massachusetts, if not in the United States, which was presented by Mrs. Hannah Mather Crocker. A valuable addition of above 900 volumes has lately been made by the bequest of the Rev. William Bentley D. D. of Salem. The society also possesses a museum and cabinet, which contain many curious articles collected in various parts of the United States. For the deposit of these,

for the public meetings of the members, and for the accommodation of those who wish to consult the sources of our history, a handsome edifice has been erected in the town of Worcester at the expense of the president, and by him given to the society.

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Assiduous in accomplishing the objects of its institution, the society has given to the public a volume of its Transactions and Collections.' It is introduced by several articles relative to the formation of the society, its progress, and present state; followed by an extract from Hennepin's Account of the discovery of the river Mississippi and the adjacent country by the lakes,' and of La Salle's undertaking to discover the same river by way of the gulf of Mexico.' Though the public have long been in possession of these last documents, yet they were deemed worthy of being reprinted here, as comprising the first information obtained by Europeans of region, which contains the most curious monuments of antiquity in North America.

The greater portion of the original articles contained in these memoirs consists of descriptions of those ancient works by Caleb Atwater Esq. of Circleville, Ohio, communicated in an epistolary correspondence with the president of the society. By the publishing committee they have been arranged, and somewhat abridged. They are preceded by a large and excellent map of the state of Ohio; and are illus trated by drawings of the principal antiquities, which make the description more intelligible and satisfactory.

Mr. Atwater remarks,

Our antiquities belong not only to different eras, in point of time, but to several nations; and those articles, belonging to the same era and the same people, were intended by their authors to be applied to many different uses.

• We shall divide these antiquities into three classes. 1. Those belonging to Indians. 2. To people of European origin; and 3. Those of that people who raised our ancient forts and tumuli.

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"Those antiquities, which, in the strict sense of the term, belong to the North American Indians, are neither numerous nor very interesting. They consist of rude stone axes and knives, of tles used in preparing maize for food, of arrow-heads, and a few other articles, so exactly similar to those found in all the Atlantic states, that a description of them is deemed quite useless.' p. 111.

The antiquities, belonging to people of European origin, con

sist principally of articles left by some of the first travellers in these parts of the country, or buried with Indians who had obtained them, perhaps, from the early settlers of Canada. It was necessary to account for these, because, when found, they have sometimes been taken for implements of native inhabitants, and referred to as evidence that the country was formerly occupied by those who possessed the arts of civilized life.

The third and most highly interesting class of antiquities comprehends those belonging to that people who erected our ancient forts and tumuli; those military works, whose walls and ditches cost so much labour in their structure; those numerous and 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 that people had, when compared with our present race of Indians, the grandeur of many of the works themselves, the total absence of all historical records or even traditionary accounts respecting them, the great interest which the learned have taken in them, to which we may add the destruction of them, which is going on in almost every place where they are found in this whole country.' p 120.

They abound most in the vicinity of good streams, and are never, or rarely, found, except in a fertile soil. They are not found in the prairies of Ohio, and rarely in the barrens, and there they are small, and situated on the edge of them, and on dry ground.' p. 124.

These ancient works consist, 1. of mounds, or tumuli, of a conical form, from five feet to more than a hundred in height: 2. of elevated squares, supposed to be high places' for sacred purposes, or the foundations of temples; and these are of various dimensions and heights: 3. of walls of earth, from five to twenty feet high, and enclosing from one acre to more than a hundred ; some laid out in regular squares, some made exactly circular, and some of irregular construction. The principal of these seem to have been intended for fortifications, or as the means of fencing in large towns: and 4. of parallel walls of earth, extending sometimes several miles; believed to be designed for covered ways, for race

grounds, and for places of amusement. They all appear to have been built with earth taken up uniformly from the surface of the plain on which they are erected, so as not to leave any traces by which we perceive from whence it was collected, and are as nearly perpendicular as the earth could be made to lie.' That these are works of great antiquity appears from this declaration of our author;.

"Trees of the largest size, whose concentric annular rings have been counted, have in many instances as many as four hundred, and they appear to be at least the third growth since the works were occupied.' p. 219.

Along the Ohio, where the river is in many places washing away its banks, hearths and fire places are brought to light, two, four, and even six feet below the surface. A long time must have elapsed since the earth was deposited over them. Around them are spread immense quantities of muscle shells, bones of animals, &c. From the depth of many of these remains of chimneys below the present surface of the earth, on which, at the settlement of this country by its present inhabitants, grew as large trees as any in the surrounding forest, the conclusion is, that a long period, perhaps a thousand years, has elapsed since these hearths were deserted.' pp. 225, 226.

The first of these mounds and forts,' as they are usually called, in a north-eastern direction, is on the south side of Ontario, not far from Black river. One on the Cher ango river, at Oxford, is the farthest south, on the eastern side of the Alleghanies.

"These works are small, very ancient, and appear to mark the utmost extent of the settlement of the people who erected them in that direction. In travelling towards Lake Erie, in a western direction from the works above mentioned, a few small works are occasionally found, especially in the Genessee country. But they are few and small, until we arrive at the mouth of Cataraugus creek, a water of Lake Erie, in Cataraugus county, in the state of New York; where Governor Clinton, in his Memoir, says, a line of forts commences, extending south upwards of fifty miles, and not more than four or five miles apart. There is said to be another line of them parallel to these, which generally contain a few acres of ground only, whose walls are only a few feet in height. Trav elling towards the south-west, these works are frequently seen, but, like those already mentioned, they are comparatively small, until we arrive on the Licking, near Newark, where are some of