of clayey soil, being a natural stratum of slate and dicular precipice of freestone twenty to thirty feet clay, traversing the freestone formation, the upper high, leaving the interiour like the top of a castle, part of which is here wanting. This terrace of soil girt with a moat and well at its base. At distances produces a luxuriant forest of sugar-trees, elm, pop-nearly equal, there are in the whole line of wall lar, oak, chestnut, &c., some of which are twenty-twenty-eight openings or gates. These were origione feet in circumference. The whole is enclosed nally, in all probability closed by woodwork, and the with a ditch and wall, which is one mile and five wall itself surmounted with palisades. eighths long, and flanked by four regular bastions. In the midst of the enclosed table is a pond, The ditch is sixty-four feet wide, and, by descending which, although it had recently been drained of three at first abruptly, gives the appearance of a second or feet of its usual contents, still, on the 25th August, interiour wall. From this it slopes gradually to the contained water. A chestnut-tree, six feet in diameimmediate foot of the wall, where it deepens sud-ter, standing on the top of the wall, serves to mark its denly again. The base of the wall is forty to sixty antiquity. Counting and measuring the annual layfeet; and its outward slope is made to coincide with ers of wood where an axeman had cut into the trunk, the precipitous slope of the hill, which, all around, I found them at nearly two hundred to the foot, is about one hundred and fifty feet, almost inacces- which would give to this tree the age of six hundred sibly steep, and below that still a steeper hill to the years. How much longer the wall had been standbase. Thus by nature and art the outward defence ing, I saw no means of determining. A poplar-tree, is a wall of stone, one hundred feet in perpendicular seven feet in diameter, standing in the ditch, allowheight, down which the defenders might roll the ing the thickness to the layers which I have found broken fragments of freestone, abundant in the en-in like poplars, one hundred and seventy to the foot, trenchment, each man with his hands alone, being would give nearly the same result, six hundred and thus an efficient piece of artillery. The height of seventy years. the wall from the bottom of the entrenchment is generally from four to seven feet, but some places it is twenty feet. The substance of it has been determined by the nature of the materials excavated, and consists of stone mixed with earth. In many places the ditch has been excavated by quarrying through the solid freestone. In one place only I saw the stone laid in regular range work like masonry; and this might have been the natural strata of the freestone left in the wall by entrenching within. This work differs from all others which I have seen, except that at the mouth of the Great Miama, which I had lately surveved. A figure of this last work accompanies Gen. Harrison's Address on the Aborigines, lately published in this city. These two works are as perfect a counterpart of each other as the ground and circumstances would permit, with the difference that Fort Hill is superiour in magnitude, strength, and romantick site to that on the Miami. Probably no place in Ohio, and few places in the I happened to have along with me my miniature world, are better calculated by Nature for a "stronginstruments for surveying, of which my "microsopick hold" than Fort Hill; and no plans of "ancient compass," made by Troughton & Simms, is the prin- works" yet discovered show more skill in the design. cipal; with these I commenced immediately a sur- or labour in the execution. Yet the traveller who, vey by" meandering. This was a difficult task, from the above sketch, shall be induced to pay the for the large trees, and an abundance of pawpaw hill a visit, will likely be disappointed, for the dense bushes, did not permit us to range on an average forest will permit him to see only a few rods at a time, more than one hundred and fifty feet at a time. I and not allow him to be impressed at once with its had no assistance except a lad, my son, who accom-general grandeur. It is probable on this account that panied me. Yet, excited by the subject, I made not even the surviving pioneer companion of General even a halt, until after a whole day of fatigue in the Massie, the patriarch of this part of the country, heat, without food or water, we had, by forty-nine knew nothing of this curiosity. lines of course and distance, come round "to a sugar tree the place of beginning." A more particular account of this and other curiosities in the same neighbourhood may be expected in the next geological report. Very respectfully yours, CINCINNATI, Sept. 10, 1838. THE GOLD COINAGE. JOHN LOCKE. I had not the least idea of the form of the work until I drew the plot, which "closed" within twenty feet. It consists of four unequal sides, curved inward, and meeting in four acute "salient angles," at which there are peculiar open bastions, the walls curved outward a little, like lines of a parenthesis, and finally running parallel to each side of a road. WE have the satisfaction to inform the publick, and which enters at the very angle. This road comes especially all the friends of the gold currency that up along a ridge less precipitous than other parts of the golden eagle is about to make its appearance the hill. The north bastion is peculiar, and consti-again in our land. Directions have been given by tutes the citadel. The gorge to it is long and nar- the Treasury Department to the Director of the Mint row. The bastion is large, and, having four concave at Philadelphia, to have the dies prepared for this sides, has three little bastions, thus constituting a complete fort within itself. The wall girts the hill superb coin, and the stamping of it commenced with all convenient despatch. at all points below the level of the table within, but at the citadel the ditch commences with a perpen-was struck at our mint. The coinage of the eagle It is now thirty-four years since any of this coin ceased in 1804, because the erroneous standard of our gold caused it to be exported almost as fast as struck. The exhibits of the mints show that upward of $1,300,000 of this coin were struck. The outline of the fort is that of a naked leg and foot with a slender ankle and sharp heel, being cut off at the lower part of the calf by a line curving downward. The two corners of the shin and calf, the heel and toe form the four bastions, and the middle joint of the toe the citadel. Glebe. INNOCENCE. POETRY, BY WILLIAM B. TAPPAN. Music composed for, and dedicated to Miss Harriet N. Mason. LITERARY NOTICES. A New View of the Origin of the Antiquities of America. By JOHN DELAFIELD, JR. N. G. Burgess & Co., Cincinnati, 1839. This work, after being unexpectedly delayed in its publication, is now before the public in quarto form, handsomely printed on fine paper, and neatly bound. The Introduction to the work is from the pen of Bishop M'ILVAINE, and in the Appendix there is a comparative view of the inhabitants of the northern and southern hemispheres, by Doctor JAMES LAKEY of this city. The work contains eleven plates, principally illustrative of the Mexican hieroglyphics, among them a Mexican map of the travels of the ancient race whose origin it is the design of this work to ascertain, through North America. This map is sixteen feet in length, and is curious as a specimen of the arts among this ancient people, and highly important as illustrative of their migrations and their origin. It does not comport with the plan of our magazine to enter upon a critical analysis of Mr. Delafield's work, much less do we feel prepared to express an opinion upon the correctness of his conclusions. The subject is one of much interest, and has engaged, at different times, the pen and the attention of many learned men, both in this country and in Europe. Mr. Delafield appears to have been a patient and laborious investigator, examining carefully all the proofs and all the authorities bearing on the subject under consideration. Whether his argument shall be deemed, by the antiquarian philosophers, conclusive or not, he has undoubtedly performed an important-work, in bringing together, in a more regular and systematic manner than had heretofore been done, the scattered facts and isolated opinions of writers and historians, touching this interesting question. But we are inclined to the opinion that Mr. Delafield has done more than this, and that it will be found that his answers to the question, "whence is this family descended, and where were their ancient homes,” is most satisfactorily answered in the work before us. We feel pleased that a volume like the present, calculated to attract attention, not only in this country, but in Europe, should emanate from the pen and the press of the Queen city. The scenes are laid wholly in the western country, and several of them in Cincinnati; the aim of the writer seeming to have been to show off "Life in the West." This design is worthy of all praise. The early and familiar history of the west exhibits an aspect of society which is as rare as interesting; an aspect, in the contemplation of which we discover much to set off against the vice and degradation of a inore advanced stage of civilization. Mr. Drake has happily exhibited many of these peculiarities, and so mingled the amusing with the instructive, that we venture to predict for it a wide circulation and general popularity. He who loves a hearty laugh will be gratified, and he who deems it a luxury to drop a tear over a picture of woe, will find much to delight him in the "Sketches from the Queen City." Semi-Centennial Celebration.-The fiftieth anniversary of the first settlement of Cincinnati, was celebrated in this city on the 26th of December last. A Committee of Arrangements, (ap pointed at a general town meeting,) assisted by a Committee from the City Council, conducted the ceremonies of the occa sion. Such pioneers to the Miami country as were still living, and were here prior to 1800, received invitations to attend, and were entertained as the guests of the city. The discourse delivered by Doctor DANIEL DRAKE, the orator of the day. embraced a minute historical sketch of the early incidents in the Miami country, down to the treaty of peace in 1795,-thus including the heroic or military period of the city. The concourse of persons present at its delivery was very large, and although the discourse occupied more than three hours in its delivery, such is the interest excited by the border wars between the whites and the Indians, it was listened to with the most respectful attention. We understand, that at the request of the committee, Dr. Drake will elaborate this discourse into a regular history of Cincinnati, from its first settlement down to the present time; and, to this end the committee have made a public appeal to the surviving pioneers, and the descendants of such as are dead, for information on every point connected with the rise and progress of events in Cincinnati and the Miami country, especially in the period anterior to the formation of the state government in 1802. We trust the appeal will not be disregarded. The Mother's Magazine. Edited by MRS. WHITTLESEY. Published by S. Whittlesey, New York. Terms, One Dollar per year. We have been a subscriber to this work for the last three years Tales and Sketches, from the Queen City. By BENJAMIN DRAKE, author of the Life and Adventures of Black Hawk." and intend to continue as long as it sustains its present high chaE. Morgan & Son, Cincinnati, 1839. racter. We have never seen any other work that contained so much good matter in so small space. We are convinced it is without an equal in this, or in any other country. It needs only to be known, to be taken and read by all mothers who desire to know and to do their duty, in forming the characters of their children. It is not, indeed, in its sphere of usefulness, confined to mothers. Fathers, brothers and sisters, may all derive inestimable benefit from it; for as the duties of parents and children are recíprocal, so the explaining and enforcing one, necessarily elucidates the other. But the merits of the Mother's Magazine cannot be shown in a brief notice like this. Let all parents take it and read it, and induce their children to read it, and they will be richly recom Some of the sketches, such as the Battle of the Blue Licks,-pensed. The Buried Canoe, and the Flag Bearer, are purely historical; Dr. G. L. Weed, at the Bible and Tract Depository, East others, fact and fiction blended; and some purely imaginative. Fourth street, Cincinnati, is agent for the Mother's Magazine. |