The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

NORTH AMERICAN ABORIGINAL TELEGRAPH. 25
valleys of the west, are often crowned with mounds, generally
intermediate but sometimes of large size; suggesting at once
the purposes to which some of the cairns or hill-mounds of
the Celts were applied, namely, that of signal or alarm posts.
Ranges of these mounds may be observed extending along
the valleys for many miles. Between Chillicothe and Columbus, on the eastern border of the Scioto valley, not far apart,
some twenty may be selected, so placed in respect to each
other, that it is believed, if the country was cleared of the
forest, signals of fire might be transmitted in a few minutes
along the whole line. On a hill opposite Chillicothe, nearly six
hundred feet in height, the loftiest in the entire region, one of
these mounds is placed. A fire built upon it would be distinctly
visible for fifteen or twenty miles up, and an equal distance
down the valley.
In the Miami valley similar works are found. Upon a hill
three hundred feet in height, overlooking the Colerain work,
and commanding an extensive view of the valley, are placed
two mounds, which exhibit marks of fire on and around them.
Similar mounds occur at intervals along the Wabash and Illinois, as also on the Upper Mississippi, the Ohio, the Miamis,
and Scioto. On the high hills, overlooking Portsmouth and
Marietta, mounds of stone are situated; those of the former
place exhibit evident marks of fire.
These mounds, or beacon hills, are to be found in different
parts of the continent. The remains of these beacon fires are
silent records left by a people, long since gone. Above the
cinders have grown stately oaks, and upon the surface of the
earth nothing but the new soil is to be seen. On removing the