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[Book I.
ANCIENT AMERICAN WELLS.
As wells are among the most ancient of man’s labors, that are extantin the old world, might we not expect to find some on these continents,relics of those races, who, in the unknown depths of time, are supposedto have cultivated the arts of civilization herel We might: and true it isthat among the proofs that a populous and much more enlightened peoplethan the Indians have ever been, were at one time the possessors of Ame rica , ancient wells have been adduced. “From the highest point of theOhio , says Mr. T. Flint, to where I am now writing (St. Charles on theMissouri ) and far up the upper Mississippi and Missouri , the more thecountry is explored and peopled, and the more its surface is penetrated,not only are there more mounds brought to view, but more incontestiblemarks of a numerous population. Wells, artificially walled, dif-ferent structures of convenience or defence, have been found in such num-hers, as no longer to excitc curiosity.”
But American antiquities were so novel, so unlooked for, and so insu-lated from those of the old world, that learned men were greatly per-plexed at their appearance ; and at a loss to account for their origin. Thisis still, in a great measure, the case. A mystery, hitherto impenetrable,hangs over the primeval inhabitants of these continents. Who they were,and whence they came, are problems that have hitherto defied all the re-searches of antiquarians. Nothing, perhaps, but the increasing occupa-tion of the soil, and excavations which civilization induces, will eventuallydetermine the question, whether these antiquities are to be attributed toEuropean settlers of the sixteenth Century; to the enterprising Scandina-vians, the North Men, who, centuries before the voyages of Columbus andthe Cabots, visited the shores of New England, New York and theJerseys ; or whether some of them did not belong to an indigenous orCuthite race, who inhabited those prolific regions, in times when themastodon and mammoth and megaionix were yet in the land.
No one can reflect on the myriads of our species who have occupiedthis half of the globe—perhaps from times anterior to the flood—withoutlonging to know something of their history ; of their physical and intel-lectual condition; their languages, manners and arts; of the revolutionsthrough which they passed; and especially of those circumstances whichcaused them to disappear before the progenitors of the present red men.The subject is one of the most interesting that ever exercised the humanmind. It is calculated to excite the most thrilling sensations, and wehave often expressed our surprise, that one of the most obvious and pro-mising sources of information has never been sufficiently investigated:we allude to ancient wells, a close examinatim of which, might lead todiscoveries equally interesting, and far more important, than those whichresulted from a similar examination of Grecian wells. Dr. Clarke says,that “ Vases of Terra Cotta , of the highest antiquity, have been found incleansing the wells of Athens.”“
Some persons may perhaps suppose the old wells in the Western partsof this continent, to be the work of Indians; but these people have neverbeen known to make any thing like a regulär well. Mr. Catlin, the artist,
a A Roman well was discovered in the seventeenth Century, near the great roadwhich leads to Carlisle , in England. Instead of being walled up with stone, it waslined with large casks or liogsheads, six feet deep, and made of pine. The well wascovered with oak plank nine inches thick. In it were found ums, drinking cups, sait-dals and shoes, the soles of which were stitched and nailed. Phil. Trans. Lowthorp’sAbridg. iii, 431.