It is reasonable to suppose, that in an uncultivated country they would become the abodes of wild animals, and even of savage men. That they have been used by the natives as burial places, is certain. In one which I entered, I counted a hundred human skulls, in the space of twenty feet square. All the lesser and more corruptible parts of each skeleton had mouldered to dust, and the whole lay in the greatest confusion. I have heard of many such caves, and to this day some of the Indians are known to deposit their dead in them. From the decomposition of such substances, it is well known the acid of the nitric salts arises, and it would of course unite with the lime every where present, and form nitrate of lime. _Mounds._ 4. I have but one more article of curiosity to mention under this division. It is one of those artificial _mounds_ which occur so frequently in the western country. I have seen many of them, and read of more. But never of one of such dimensions as that which I am now to describe. It is situated in the interior of the Cherokee nation, on the north side of the Etowee, vulgarly called Hightower River, one of the branches of the Koosee. It stands upon a strip of alluvial land, called _River Bottom_. I visited it in company with eight Indian chiefs. The first object which excited attention was an excavation about twenty feet wide, and in some parts ten feet deep. Its course is nearly that of a semicircle; the extremities extending towards the river, which forms a small elbow. I had not time to examine it minutely. An Indian said it extended each way to the river, and had several unexcavated parts, which served for passages to the area which it encloses. To my surprise, I found no embankment on either side of it. But I did not long doubt to what place the earth had been removed; for I had scarcely proceeded two hundred yards, when, through the thick forest trees, a stupendous pile met the eye, whose dimensions were in full proportion to the intrenchment. I had at the time no means of taking an accurate admeasurement. To supply my deficiency, I cut a long vine, which was preserved until I had an opportunity of ascertaining its exact length. In this manner I found the distance from the margin of the summit to the base, to be one hundred and eleven feet. And judging from the degree of its declivity, the _perpendicular height_ cannot be less than seventy-five feet. The circumference of the base, including the feet of three parapets, measured one thousand one hundred and fourteen feet. One of these parapets extends from the base to the summit, and can be ascended, though with difficulty, on horseback. The other two, after rising thirty or forty feet, terminate in a kind of triangular platform. Its top is level, and at the time I visited it, was so completely covered with weeds, bushes, and trees of most luxuriant growth, that I could not examine it as well as I wished. Its diameter, I judged, must be one hundred and fifty feet.