Editorialana. 393
following device: A shield, in form, a
circle. On it, in the foreground,
on the right, a sheaf of wheat; on the
left, a bundle of seventeen arrows,
both standing erect; in the background,
and rising above the sheaf and
arrows, a mountain range, over which
shall appear a rising sun.
SEC. 2. The great seal of the state
shall be two and one-half inches
in diameter, on which shall be engraved
the device as described in the
preceding section, and it shall be
surrounded with these words: "The
great seal of the State of Ohio."
SEC. 4. The act passed April 6, 1868 (0.
L. 63, 185), entitled an act
to provide the devices and great seal
and coat of arms of the State of
Ohio, and said act as amended April 16,
1867 (0. L. 64, 191), be and
the same are hereby repealed.
It will thus be seen that the motto Imperium
in Imperio only existed
during the short life of two years. It
may not be uninteresting to note
that the Legislature which adopted the
"imperial" motto was a Repub-
lican one, while the repealing assembly
was Democratic, being the same
which elected Hon. Allen G. Thurman to
the United States Senate.
The coat of arms practically as we now
have it was originally adopted
in year 1802 or soon after the State was
admitted into the Union.
HARPERS MONTHLY AND SERPENT MOUND.
Harper's Monthly for January current,
has an interesting article by
Prof. Harlan Ingersoll Smith, Department
of Anthropology, Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, entitled
the Great Pyramid. In this
sketch, which treats of a few of the
most prominent archaeological monu-
ments in the United States, Prof. Smith
describes Fort Ancient and the
Serpent Mound. After speaking of the
preservation by our Society of
these valuable relics of a prehistoric
day, Prof. Smith says: "It ( Fort
Ancient) is now preserved in a public
park, like the Great Serpent, Ohio's
other famous aboriginal earth-work, and,
like that, is controlled for the
public good and preserved for posterity
by the Ohio State Historical So-
ciety. Nor should it be forgotten, that
the good work initiated by Pro-
fessor Putnam of the Peabody Museum at
Harvard, and followed by the
Ohio State Historical Society, is of the
highest value to the country at
large and to future generations, as well
as deserving of the highest praise
in our own time." We quote in full
Prof. Smith's description of Serpent
Mound. "Of all these mounds, the
Great Serpent appeals peculiarly to the
imagination. About its story, which is
yet to be told, the fancy of the
twentieth century weaves traditions of
serpent-worship in a forgotten ci-
vilization, or dreams of Eden and man's
first disobedience. On the top of
a rocky promontory extending into the
beautiful valley of Brush Creek, in
Adams county, Ohio, in the year 1848,
Squier and Davis, the pioneers of
American archaeology, located the
Serpent in a dense forest, and first de-
scribed it. An earthen effigy, complete
and symmetrical, the Great Serpent
394 Ohio Arch. and His.
Society Publications.
measures from the uper jaw to the tip of
the tail twelve hundred and
fifty-four feet, in folds so lifelike,
as they rise near the head to a height of
five feet above the ground, that their
very view inspires the beholder with
awe. In front of the mouth lies the
outline of that part of this monumental
earthwork which has been called the Egg,
around which open the jaws of
the Serpent as if in the act of swallowing.
From the outer wall of this
small oval, or Egg, the tip of the
Serpent's tail is four hundred and ninety-
six feet distant. The Egg is itself one
hundred and twenty feet long and
sixty feet at its greatest width. The
Serpent's jaws are banks of earth
seventeen feet wide each, and sixty-one
and fifty-six feet respectively in
length. The distance across the open
mouth, from lip to lip, is seventy-
five feet. In the centre of the oval
there is now standing, as there has been
from time immemorial, a mound of burnt
stones. This sacrificial mound,
or altar, perhaps, has in past years,
been uprooted by white men in the vain
search for buried gold, but still
preserves its identity; at the base of the
cliff upon which the Great Serpent was
constructed similar stones showing
the action of fire in past ages have
been found in comparatively recent years.
Fortunaty further depredations have been
prevented by the purchase of the
Great Serpent and the surrounding land
with a fund raised by private sub-
scription among the ladies of
Massachusetts, who subsepuently transferred
the property to the trustees of the
Peabody Museum in Cambridge. They
in turn made over the Great Serpent Park
to the people of the state of
Ohio, who now protect it by legislative
enactment under conditions similar
to those to which the Fort Ancient
Embankment is safeguarded." Prof.
Smith's article is accompanied by
several excellent pictures of both Fort
Ancient and Serpent Mound.
PIONEERS OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY.
Mr. C. M. L. Wiseman, Author of
"Centennial Lancaster," has just
issued a little volume on "Pioneer
Period and Pioneer People of Fair-
field County, Ohio." Mr. Wiseman
has performed his task in a most
pleasing and painstaking manner.
Fairfield County is rich in historical
and biographical material. Mr. Wiseman
has developed this in an accu-
rate and satisfactory way. Many of the
most illustrious families in
Ohio's history are associated, either by
birth or residence, with Fairfield
County. James G. Blaine, Thomas Ewing,
William Medill, John
Brough, the Shermans, C. R., John and
Tecumseh. There is a very
interesting and valuable chapter on the
Zane family. Ebenezer Zane
was employed by the U. S. Government in
1796 to open a road from
Wheeling, W. Va. to Maysville, Ky.
Ebenezer with his Indian guide
"Tomepomehala" and perhaps
others, inspected the route and blazed
the way. It was the famous "Zane's
Trace." Zane's sons laid out the
town of Lancaster in the year 1800. Mr.
Wiseman has made a decided
contribution to the historical
literature of Ohio. The book is printed in
most creditable form by F. J. Heer &
Company, Columbus, Ohio.