Jamestown was not the ideal place to found a new colony but it was a defensible island and had a deep channel near the shore. The lower end of the island, seen here, was covered in thick vegetation and consisted of marshes divided by higher ridgelines. Only at the western end of the island did the English find a large section of high ground that was suitable for construction of a fort. That area may have been previously cleared by Powhatan Indians for raising corn and was in a stage of second growth with many moderate sized saplings. These could be easily cut and were a good size with which to build a palisade fort. Archaeology has revealed that many of the timbers used in the James Fort palisade were round in shape and 4 to 7 inches in diameter, the size expected in a secondary forest only growing for a few decades.