NORTTU AMERICAN



INDIANS.



in proper places to cast at an enemy. Charlevoix and
other writers agree, in representinga the Indian fortresses.
as fabricated with wood. Such also were the forts of
Saascus, the great chief of the Pequots; and the princi-
pal fortress of the Narraaansets was on an island in a
swamp, of five or six acres of rising land; the sides were
made with palis.ades set upright, encompassed with a
hedge, of a rod in thickness.
  -1 have alreaidy alluded to the argument for the great
antiquity of those ancient forts, to be derived from the
number of concentric circles. On the ramparts of one
of the Muslkinarn forts four hundred and sixty three
were ascertained on a tree, decayed at the centre; and
there are likewise the strongest marks of a former growth
of a similar size. This would make those works near a
thousand vears old.
  " But there is another consideration -which hals never
before been urged, and which appears to meto be not un-
worthy of attention. It is certainly vnovel, and I believe
it to be founded on a basis, which cannot easily be sub-
verted .
  "' Prom near the Genesee River to Lexington, on the
Niagara River, there is a remnarliable ridae or elevation
of land, rutiningy almost the whole distance, which is
seventy eivht miles, atnd in a direction from east to west.
Its areneral altitude above the neialhbourina land is thir-
ty feet, and its width varies considerably; in some places
it is not more than forty yards.  Its elevation above the
1eovP1 of the Lake Ontario is nerhaDs one hundred and



sixty ft
its dista
Tfis re
(d 1IIy n
It is inl
gently
little la
United



Ot, to I
ince frc
'1arkal
ature f



whjicll
n)  th~
51e st]
hr the



..  -
1 it descends by a
Lat wrater is betwee
rip of land. would
3 uripose /f an eeI
_n. purpose of an ent



gla(
n sir



uulu slope, and
( and ten miles.



appear as if intend-
sy communication.



fact a stupendous natural turnpike, deseending
on each side, and covered with gravel; and but
bour is requisite to malke it the best road in the
States.  When' the forests between it and the



lakes are cleared, the prospects and scenery which will



283



I