PLATE XXII. No. 2. BLACKWATER GROUP, ROSS COUNTY, OHIO.

This group, which very much resembles that last described, is situated on the right bank of the Scioto river, eight miles above Chillicothe, near the Columbus road. It is specially remarkable for its singular parallels, A and B of the plan. Each of these is seven hundred and fifty feet long by sixty broad, measuring from centre to centre of the embankments. They are in cleared ground, which has been cultivated for more than twenty years; consequently the walls are much reduced, being now scarcely two feet in height. A gateway opens into the southern parallel, from the east. A corresponding opening may have existed in the other parallel, though it is impossible to discern it now. The ground embraced in the semi-circular works C and D is reduced several feet below the level of the plain on which they are located. The mounds belonging to this group have never been investigated; hence their character is undetermined. The group is introduced in this connection, on account of its resemblance to the one just described. It is just to conclude that both were erected for a common or analogous purpose.

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PLATE XXIII. No. 1.[51] DUNLAP’S WORKS, ROSS COUNTY, OHIO.

This work, situated on the right bank of the Scioto river, six miles above Chillicothe, presents some remarkable features. It is rhomboidal in figure, with an avenue eleven hundred and thirty feet long extending to the south-east, and also a p064 short avenue, leading from a gateway to the north, connecting with a small circle. Along the western wall runs the bank of a plain, elevated a number of feet above the level of the work, upon the very brow of which is situated an outwork (A) eighty feet wide by two hundred and eighty in length. It overlooks the larger work, and has a wide gateway opening towards it. At this point the bank seems to have been graded to a more gentle descent. The great avenue approaches to within sixty feet of the gateway at a, which is one hundred and twenty feet wide; the walls closing, at the other extremity, upon a radius of half the width of the avenue. A low mound occupies the extreme point of the avenue. At some distance south of the main work, is a mound surrounded by a ditch and low embankment; and at the distance of about half a mile, very nearly in the course of the avenue, are a number of mounds,—one of which is fifteen feet high, truncated, and with a base of one hundred feet diameter. The diameter of the level area on the top is about fifty feet. These mounds stand on the lowest portion of the second terrace; the ground which they occupy being overflowed at periods of very high water in the river. These are the only monuments known which are reached by overflows. The top of the truncated mound was made a place of refuge, during the high water of 1832, by a family, with their cattle, horses, etc., numbering in all nearly a hundred. It was among the first opened, in the progress of these investigations, and before the characteristics of this class of works were clearly known. Hence, although a number of skeletons were disinterred, at depths of from two to five feet, together with a few rude instruments, the original deposit of the mound-builders was not reached. The skeletons were unquestionably those of the modern Indians. Upon the mound and around it, many fragments of rough pottery are found, and a number of entire vases of rude workmanship were exposed a few years since in ploughing over an adjacent small mound. Many decayed fresh-water shells are also found on and around the mound; and, as these when pulverized entered into the composition of the rude pottery of the more recent Indians, it seems highly probable that a sort of manufactory of this ware was established here. A number of large mounds also occur at some distance to the northward of the principal work.