Ancient Tower at Newport.
Not far from Newport, in the state of Rhode Island, near the sea shore, is a strange tower, which may have been the base for a beacon or light-house.
At Marietta, Ohio, are ancient works that cover an area about three-fourths of a mile long, and half a mile broad. But the most intricate, and perhaps the most extensive, are those in the Licking Valley, near Newark, Ohio, extending over an area of two square miles.
These mounds are evidently the remains of ancient fortifications, as they are invariably situated on a commanding eminence, or by the side of a stream. Many of these mounds have been found to contain skeletons; and the appearance of the bones would seem to point to an antiquity of more than a thousand years.
Curious pottery, known as "coil-made pottery," has been found in the mounds and caves, and at the ruined "pueblos," or ancient villages, in Utah. These vessels seem to have been formed without the aid of a potter's wheel, by coiling bands of clay upon themselves.
Other relics have been discovered in various parts of the continent which throw some light on the mental and social condition of the ancient inhabitants of America. In August, 1875, on an island in the Mississippi river, near the city of Davenport, Iowa, was found a petrified skeleton. But the most singular part of the find came to light in the hardened and petrified straps, bronze buckles and wooden leg which continued the right extremity, that limb having been removed about midway between the hip and knee. This very interesting discovery proves that the arts of manufacturing bronze, and artificial limbs, as well as the art of surgery, were well known among the ancient Americans. These remains were handed over to the Academy of Sciences, and a photograph was taken of the inscription contained on a rock in the vicinity. A copy of this photograph was forwarded to the late Mr. Barfoot, then curator of the Deseret Museum, in Salt Lake City.
On the 16th of April, 1843, in a mound near Kinderhook, Pike county, Illinois, were found six plates of brass of a bell shape, each having a hole near the small end, and a ring through them all. The plates were so completely covered with rust, as almost to obliterate the characters inscribed upon each side of them. But after undergoing a chemical process, the inscriptions were brought out plain and distinct.
There were indications that lead to the belief that this mound was the tomb of a family or person of distinction, in ages long gone by; and these plates probably contain the history of a person or people who existed at a time far beyond the memory of the present race. (For further particulars see appendix to O. Pratt's Works.)
In 1815, near Pittsfield, Mass., at a place called Indian Hill, was found what appeared to be a black strap about six inches in length and one and a half in breadth, and about the thickness of a leather trace to a harness. On examination it was found to be formed of two pieces of thick raw-hide sewed and made water-tight with the sinews of some animal and gummed over; and in the fold were contained pieces of parchment, of a dark-yellow hue and on which was some kind of writing. Three of the pieces were preserved and sent to the University of Cambridge, Mass., where they were examined and discovered to have been written with a pen in Hebrew, plain and legible. The writing was quotations from the Old Testament, Deut, vi. 4-9, inclusive, and chap. xi. 13-21, inclusive, and Exodus xiii, 11-16, inclusive. (See Voice of Warning.)
The ancient Mexican pyramids, "teocallis," or temples of the sun, were still more remarkable. Two of the most ancient of these, near the city of Mexico, were each nearly 200 feet high, and the larger of these two, covers an area of eleven acres, which is nearly equal to that of the pyramid of Cheops, in Egypt.