ditch
between. The stumps of those which have been cut down are so many
chronological facts, from which the age of the fort may be conjectured
with some approach to accuracy. A maple within the enclosure exhibits
242 rings of annual growth. It was probably the oldest tree within the
walls. A maple in the outer embankment shows 197 rings; between the
inner and outer walls a beech stump shows 219 rings, and an elm 266.
Many of the trees were cut down a good many years ago. Judging from
these stumps, it would be safe to calculate the age of the forest at
about two hundred years, with here and there a tree a little older. The
area enclosed is level. In the field south there are numerous hummocks
formed by the decayed stumps of fallen trees. The walls were manifestly
thrown up from the outside. There is an exception on the south-east.
Here the ground outside was higher, and to get the requisite elevation
the earth was thrown up on both walls from the intervening space, as
well as on the exterior wall from the outside. Each of the walls runs
completely round the enclosure, except where the steep bank of the
little stream was utilized to eke out the inner wall for five or six
rods on the west side, as shewn on the plan. Opposite the south end of
this gap was the original entrance through the outer wall. The walls
have been cut through in one or two other places, doubtless by settlers
hauling timber across them.

The writer accompanied Mr. Campbell on his visits in the spring and fall
of 1891. The members of the Elgin Historical and Scientific Institute
made a pretty thorough examination of a large ash-heap south-east of the
fort. It had, however, been frequently dug into during the last score or
two of years, with ample results, it is said, in the way of stone
implements of various kinds. There still remained, however, arrow-heads
and chippings of flint, stones partially disintegrated from the action
of heat, fragments of pottery whose markings showed a very low stage of
artistic development, fish scales, charred maize and bones of small
animals, the remains of aboriginal banquets. Within the enclosure,
corn-cobs were found by digging down though the mould, and a good
specimen of a bone needle, well smoothed, but without any decoration,
was turned up in the bed of the stream where it passes through the fort.

The original occupants were manifestly hunters, fishermen and
agriculturists, as well as warriors. Nothing appears to