One beautiful specimen of this work is found in this cut. It occurs on the right bank of the Scioto river, five miles below Chillicothe. Here we notice a combination of the octagon and the circle. The areas of each are marked. The octagon is nine hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and nearly regular in shape. In 1846 its walls were eleven or twelve feet high, by about fifty feet base. It will be noticed that there is a gate at or near each angle of the octagon except one, and in front of that angle was a pit, from which some of the earth to form the walls was taken. Facing each gateway a mound was placed, as if to guard the entrance.
The circle connected with the octagon is perfect in shape, and is ten hundred and fifty feet in diameter. Its walls were only about half the height of the octagon. We notice some other small circular works in connection with the main work. In this case the parallels are not very regular, and seem to be connected with one or more circular works. In a work situated but a few miles from the one here portrayed, the parallels extend in one direction nearly half a mile, only one hundred and fifty feet apart. They terminate on the edge of a terrace. The object of such parallels is as yet unknown. In some cases, after extending some distance, they simply inclosed a mound.
It is easy enough to describe this work and give its dimensions, but who will tell us the object its builders had in mind? The walls themselves would afford but slight protection and if they were for defense, must have been surmounted with palisades. Works that were undoubtedly in the nature of fortified camps, are found in this same section, and one of the strongest was located not more than twelve miles away; but such defensive works differ very greatly in design from regular structures such as we are now describing. A very eminent scholar, Mr. Morgan, has advanced the theory that the walls were the foundations on which communal houses, like the Pueblos of the West, were erected.61 But this is mere theory. All traces of such habitations (if they ever existed) are gone, the usual _debris_ which would be sure to accumulate around house-sites, is wanting, and the walls themselves seem unfit for such purpose.62