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present day, and of course a change in the waters themselves, to much more freshness? now than then". p.358. -

Mechanic arts.] "It cannot be supported, that the many deep & wide intrenchments of which we have already spoken, could be made without the aid of metallic tools, such as the spade and the pickaxe; nor could bricks be of any use to the ancient inhabitants, without the trowel; and the masonic art, not to mention the building of stone walls. And this presupposes a great number of other arts; the fusing of ore, the forging of metals, and smithing on the forging of metallic utensils to the various ends they are intended for. The mark of the axe near the heart of a poplar of 400 or 500 years, and the water pond in the enclosures in the bend of Big Harpeth, which could not have been made without hoes & spades, are evidences of the use of iron and copper tools.

A few miles from the town of Columbia, in Maury county, in West Tennessee, and on Duck river, are a number of fortifications, as they are called, and mounds, into some of which some young men dug a small distance; and found several well burnt bricks, about nine inches square, and three inches thick; also, several