8 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS
ducted, nor of their extent. It is perhaps sufficient to say, that the surveys were, for the most part, made by the writer and his associate im person, and that the excavations were all of them conducted under their personal direction and super- vision. Great care was exercised in noting down, on the spot, every fact, however minute, which might be of value, in the solution of the preblems of the origin and purposes of the remains under notice ; and particular attention was bestowed in observing the dependencies of the position, structure, and contents of the various works in respect to each other and the general features of the country. In- deed, no exertion was spared to ensure entire accuracy, and the compass and line, the rule and the spade, were alone relied upon, in matters too often left to an approximate estimate or to conjecture.
The ancient earth-works (enclosures) personally exa- mined and surveyed are upwards of one hundred, and the mounds excavated not far from two hundred, in number. Several thousand remains of ancient art were also collected in the progress of the investigations, chiefly from the mounds themselves. These constitute a cabinet, as valu- able in its extent, as interesting in the great variety and the singular character of the illustrations which it furnishes of the condition of the domestic and minor arts of the peo- ple by whom these monuments were erected. A descrip- tion of these would alone fill a volume. The most, there- fore, which can be done, in the compass of this paper, is to give a brief general view of the extent of the aboriginal monuments of the West, with a few examples of certain classes, in which their predominant features are presented.
Extent and General Character of the Aboriginal Monu- 3 ments of the West.
The aboriginal monuments of the Western United States, consist, for the most part, of elevations and em-
