On its sides and summit, are many large trees of the same description, and of equal dimensions with those around it. One beach-tree, near the top, measured ten feet nine inches in circumference. The earth on one side of the tree, was three and a half feet lower than on the opposite side. This fact will give a good idea of the degree of the mound's declivity. An oak, which was lying down on one of the parapets, measured at the distance of six feet from the butt, without the bark, twelve feet four inches in circumference. At a short distance to the southeast is another mound, in ascending which I took thirty steps. Its top is encircled by a breastwork three feet high, intersected through the middle with another elevation of a similar kind. A little farther is another mound, which I had not time to examine. On these great works of art, the Indians gazed with as much curiosity as any white man. I inquired of the oldest chief, if the natives had any tradition respecting them; to which he answered in the negative. I then requested each to say what he supposed was their origin. Neither could tell: though all agreed in saying; "they were never put up by our people." It seems probable they were erected by another race, who once inhabited the country. That such a race existed, is now generally admitted. Who they were, and what were the causes of their degeneracy, or of their extermination, no circumstances have yet explained. But this is no reason why we should not, as in a hundred other instances, infer the existence of the cause from its effects, without any previous knowledge of its history. In regard to the objects which these mounds were designed to answer, it is obvious they were not always the same. Some were intended as receptacles for the dead. These are small, and are distinguished by containing human bones. Some may have been designed as sites for public buildings, whether of a civil or religious kind; and others no doubt were constructed for the purposes of war. Of this last description, is the Etowee mound. In proof of its suitableness for such a purpose, I need only mention that the Cherokees in their late war with the Creeks, secured its summit by pickets, and occupied it as a place of protection for hundreds of their women and children. Gladly would I have spent a day in examining it more minutely; but my companions, unable to appreciate my motives, grew impatient, and I was obliged to withdraw, and leave a more perfect observation and description to some one else. _Alluvial Formation._