these remains of the former power of man with much care and veneration; nor could I resist reproaching those writers who have ignorantly asserted, 'We know of no such thing existing as an Indian monument of respectability, for we would not honor with that name arrow-points, stone hatchets, stone pipes, half-shapen images, &c.'
"The one which I have opened might have been originally a parallelogram 60 feet by 20, and 30 feet high, whose upper surface and angles have been rounded by the long influence of time and accident; for we are not to conceive that the form of ancient works is exactly similar to that which they first possessed. Such, indeed, as are built of stone and have not been exposed to dilapidation do not experience any material change; but all those monuments (and they are by far the most numerous) which are composed of earth must have undergone considerable alteration and waste, and therefore afford a very scanty evidence of their original dimensions, or (except where bones are found) of their purpose. The bones in the barrows of this neighborhood were directed to every point, Without regard to system or order. This surprised me more as I am well convinced that in general most of the ancient aboriginal nations and tribes had favorite positions for their dead, and even favorite strata with which to cover them, as I shall have occasion to explain when on the spot where the primitive Indians resided. Perhaps the irregularities in the barrows of this place may arise from the bones deposited in them, having been those of persons killed in battle, and collected by the survivors in order to be buried under one great mound.' - - - At the same time and place I found in my researches a few carved stone pipes and hatchets, flints for arrows, and pieces of earthenware. I cannot take upon me to say that the workmanship of any of these articles surpasses the efforts of some of the present race of Indians, but it certainly destroys an opinion which prevailed, that the inhabitants in the most remote times had the use of arms, utensils and instruments made of copper, iron, and steel."
Josiah Priest, in his American Antiquities, 1833, p. 85, mentions this ancient fort, but he uses the language of Ashe without giving credit.
Mr. James L. Bowman, who had frequently seen the outlines of the camp, notices it briefly in "Day's Historical Collections" and the "American Pioneer."
Curiously carved rocks are to be seen on many parts of the Monongahela River. At the mouth of Ten-Mile Creek, 12 miles above Brownsville, are the most interesting of these. Some of the rocks there bear the impress of a man's foot, a horse's foot, a hand, a head, a turkey, a fish, birds, beasts, &c.
On the farm of Mr. George. E. Hogg, near Dunlap's Creek Church, 5 miles east of Brownsville, there have been found a vast number of flat stones, soft and friable, which are full of small circular indentations of various diameters, as if made by the attrition of some harder substance, rubbed between the hands. Possibly they were used to produce fire by rubbing pieces of cane in them rapidly between the palms of the hand.
