Identifier: travelsamongstam00brin (find matches)
Title: Travels amongst American Indians : their ancient earthworks and temples : including a journey in Guatemala, Mexico and Yucatan, and a visit to the ruins of Patinamit, Utatlan, Palenque and Uxmal
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Brine, Lindesay, 1834-1906
Subjects: Indians -- Antiquities Guatemala -- Antiquities Mexico -- Antiquities North America -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : S. Low, Marston & Company
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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of it, almost impregnable.The hill which is about two hundred and thirty feetabove the valley, is in the form of a narrow pro-montory having almost precipitous sides except whereit is joined to the plateau. The Little Miami windsround one part of the base, and some small tributarystreams join it from the other side. The shape and length of the embankments areshown in the accompanying plan, which is a reductionthat I have drawn from one that was made in 1843by Professor Locke of Cincinnati. * It will be observedthat the ramparts follow closely the curves of theridge of the hill and that the camp is practicallydivided into two parts, the outer division being nearthe plain, and the inner one being at the head of thepromontory, where the sides of the hill are the moststeep and inaccessible. The latter was probablyintended as a final stronghold in the event of theouter work being captured. The magnitude of the inclosing embankments of * Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, pp. 19.
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FORT ANCIENT. 89 the outer camp is astonishing. It is here that theposition is most open to direct attack, and no effortsor labour have been spared in carrying out what wasthought necessary to prevent capture. No Komanor British encampment that I have seen surpassesthis great Indian work. I walked round the entirecircuit of the ramparts. They are not less than fourmiles in length. They follow every curve of the hilland the heads of all the numerous ravines. The ground of the inclosure is level. At the timeof my visit it was covered with forest trees, amongstAvhich were many poplars. Upon the slopes of theembankments there was a luxuriant growth of largebeeches and oaks. The quantity of earth thatmust have been conveyed and thrown up when form-ing these banks must have been enormous. Theramparts vary in height between ten and twenty feetaccording- to the character of the natural defenceafforded by the slopes of the hill. At the approachfrom the plain they are fifteen feet high and have

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