Availing Themselves Of Spurs Of The Old Table Land Which Were Almost Entirely Cut Off By The Gorges Tributary To The River, They Ran Their Earth Walls With Infinite Toil In A Tortuous, Crenulated Line Along The Margins Of The Declivities.

Where the latter was sharp and precepitous the earth walls were left lighter.

Where it became necessary to cross the table land, or where the slopes were gradual, the walls were made especially high and strong. The eye and brain of a military engineer, a Vauban of the olden time, is clearly seen in all this. We cannot be mistaken in regard to it when we thus find the weak places made strong, and the strong places left as far as possible to their own natural defenses. The openings from the fort, also, lead out in every case to points easily made defensible and that command views from several directions.

"In the second place we cannot be mistaken in seeing in the work of Fort Ancient striking evidences of an organized society, of intelligent leadership, in a word, of strong government. A vast deal of labor was done here and it was done methodically, systematically and with continuity. Here again you must think of the conditions under which the work was accomplished. There were no beasts of burden to share the labor of their owners; the work was all done by human muscles. Buckets full of earth, each containing from a peck to a half bushel, borne on the backs of men or women, slowly built up these walls, which are nearly five miles in length and which have a maximum height of not less than twenty feet.

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