the famous mound,[24] said to be 75 feet high. The ascent is extremely steep: it is indeed a pyramid, and of an elegant conic figure; at the summit there is a circular depression indicative of some excavation, and it is surrounded by a shallow ditch, across which, there are left two gateways. It appears to be elevated at about an angle of 60°, and the earth, as in many other similar monuments, has evidently been beaten down to resist the washing of rains. It is remarkably perfect and compleat, and would probably continue a monument as long as the walled pyramids of Egypt. Amongst other trees growing upon it, there was a white oak of not less than two centuries' duration. In the immediate vicinity, there is likewise a small ditched circle with two entrances, and a smaller ditched mound.
At this place, I took in a young man going down to Big Sandy creek, who assisted in working his passage with us. At dark we landed on the Ohio shore, and lodged with a poor but hospitable resident.
28th.] Tired of the boat, I got out and walked 10 or 12 miles, on the Virginia side of the river. Many of the settlers here appear to be Yankees, from Vermont and Connecticut, and in prosperous circumstances. A mile and a half above Sistersville, and 35 from Marietta, in Virginia, there is a small aboriginal station, consisting of five or six low mounds, and a circle containing an area of about an acre.
29th.] Twenty-six miles above Marietta, on the Virginia side, on the estate of Mr. Cohen, there was on the platform of the third, or most ancient alluvial bottom, a large, but low mound, grown over with brambles; and, at the distance of about a quarter of a {26} mile below, a
