Passing from the question of this date, as calculated by the annular rings counted upon the trees, to the subject of the contents of the burial mound which was excavated in the presence of Dr. Hildreth; the problem that has chiefly to be solved is the age of the silver-plated ornaments. It is difficult to fix the time when these were made, but judging from the sketches of them, as published in the account of these discoveries, the ornaments appear to have been such as would have been placed upon the sword belt and scabbard of a European officer of rank. When the inclosures and their ramparts were for the first time surveyed and described in the year 1805, it was observed that there were parallel passages or protected ways leading from the larger of the forts down to the river. These appear to correspond with the parallels that can still be traced at Newark, and which also lead to the river. Those at Marietta were however more remarkable, because, in order to obtain the gradual approach which was required, it was necessary, apparently, to excavate the river bank in such a manner as to make a sunken road. A conveniently sloped communication with the water was thus constructed. It is probable that at the river side where the protecting embankments terminated, a fleet of canoes was kept ready for use or escape. The next confluence of rivers below Marietta, occurs at the point where the Scioto falls into the Ohio. Near the spot where the town of Portsmouth is now situated, are traces of an extensive series of low embankments which seem to have been made for temporary entrenchments. On the opposite or south bank of the river, there was an inclosure constructed in the shape of a square, each of the sides being eight hundred feet long; the area inclosed was nearly fifteen acres. The embankments were over twelve feet high: and there was no ditch. This fort was brought into especial notice in consequence of a strange discovery. A large number of iron pickaxes, shovels and gunbarrels were found buried in the ramparts. It has been conjectured that they were hidden there by the French soldiers when they retreated down the Ohio after the capture of Fort Du Quesne[19] by the British forces in the year 1758. The Indian fortifications on the banks of that river were placed upon the direct line of the communication with the other French forts in the valley of the Mississippi and Louisiana. In the ordinary course of events they would probably have been used by the French and their Indian allies, when they happened to be in their neighbourhood.