i 9+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



builders and civilized races of the South ; but this does little or 

 nothing toward establishing a relationship between them. 



As to when and ivhy and how the mound-builders disappeared 

 we can form a more accurate and reliable conception. A large 

 number of the monuments left behind by them are of a defensive 

 nature ; in some localities, as in the valley of the Cuyahoga, near 

 Cleveland, every headland which overlooks the river is crowned 

 with a fort or citadel ; and it is evident that those who occupied 

 this and many other areas of the Mississippi Valley were engaged 

 in a constant struggle with persistent, harassing enemies. 



Following the migrations of the various tribes of the modern 

 Indians (as we are able to do chiefly by the clew of language) we 

 learn that they have come from the North, and have for hundreds 

 of years been pushing by devious and interlacing routes south- 

 ward to occupy the territory once possessed by sedentary, peace- 

 ful, and agricultural peoples the mound-builders in the East and 

 the stone-house builders in the West. 



Limitation of time forbids the citation of the proof of this 

 northern invasion, but it is sufficient to convince those who have 

 most carefully studied the subject. We may therefore accept the 

 conclusion that in America, as in Europe, hordes of northern 

 barbarians (multiplied by the fecundity of a cool and healthful 

 climate, and inspired by the force and restlessness acquired in 

 their strife with Nature's obstacles) invaded southern lands whose 

 more fertile soil and genial but enervating climate developed the 

 arts of peace at the expense of those of war. 



The commoner belief has been that the ultimate fate of the 

 mound-builders was entire extinction ; but there is good reason to 

 believe that in the Natchez and Mandans, and perhaps some other 

 tribes still existing, but in small numbers, at the advent of the 

 whites, we have their lineal descendants. The grounds of this 

 conclusion can not be fully set forth here, but it may be said that 

 the tribes referred to in many respects contrast strongly with 

 the more numerous and characteristic inhabitants of the country ; 

 and also that their customs and arts, their implements and struct- 

 ures, bear a close resemblance to those of the former occupants 

 of the Mississippi Valley. 



As to the time which has elapsed since the mines and struct- 

 ures of the mound-builders were abandoned we have only nega- 

 tive evidence. The heaps of debris about the Lake Superior cop- 

 per mines, the filled-up oil wells, and the earthworks of Ohio, 

 Kentucky, and Tennessee, were found by the incoming whites 

 covered with dense forests in which the trees had attained their 

 maximum size. Beneath this present generation of trees, and 

 overgrown by their roots, were lying the prostrate and decaying 

 trunks of a preceding generation. We thus have evidence that 



