68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



form, on which are found deposited more or less abundant relics, all 

 bearing traces of the action of fire. We are, therefore, only ac- 

 quainted with such articles as are practically fire-proof. These con- 

 sist of bone and copper implements and ornaments, disks, and tubes 

 pearl, shell, and silver beads, more or less injured by the fire ornaments 

 cut in mica, ornamental pottery, and numbers of elaborate carvings 

 in stone, mostly forming jfipes for smoking. The metallic articles are 

 all formed by hammering, but the execution is very good ; plates of 

 mica are found cut into scrolls and circles; the pottery, of which very 

 few remains have been found, is far superior to that of any of the In- 

 dian tribes, since Dr. Wilson is of opinion that they must have been 

 formed on a wheel, as they are often of uniform thickness throughout 

 (sometimes not more than one-sixth of an inch), polished and orna- 

 mented with scrolls and figures of birds and flowers in delicate relief. 

 But the most instructive objects are the sculptured stone pipes, repre- 

 senting not only various easily-recognizable animals, but also human 

 heads, so well executed that they appear to be portraits. Among the 

 animals, not only are such native forms as the panther, bear, otter, 

 wolf, beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, frog, rattlesnake, and many 

 others, well represented, but also the manatee, which perhaps then 

 ascended the Mississippi as it now does the Amazon, and the toucan, 

 which could hardly have been obtained nearer than Mexico. The 

 sculptured heads are especially remarkable, because they present to 

 us the features of an intellectual and civilized people. The nose in 

 some is perfectly straight, and neither prominent nor dilated, the 

 mouth is small, and the lips thin, the chin and upper lip are short, 

 contrasting with the ponderous jaw of the modern Indian, while the 

 cheek-bones present no marked prominence. Other examples . have 

 the nose somewhat projecting at the apex in a manner quite unlike 

 the features of any American indigenes, and, although there are some 

 which show a much coarser face, it is very difficult to see in any of 

 them that close resemblance to the Indian type which these sculptures 

 have been said to exhibit. The few authentic crania from the mounds 

 present corresponding features, being far more symmetrical and bet- 

 ter developed in the frontal region than those of any American tribes, 

 although somewhat resembling them in the occipital outline ; ' while 

 one was described by its discoverer (Mr. W. Marshall Anderson) as 

 " a beautiful skull worthy of a Greek." 



The antiquity of this remarkable race may perhaps not be very 

 great, as compared with the prehistoric man of Europe, although the 

 opinions of some writers on the subject seem affected by that "par- 

 simony of time " on which the late Sir Charles Lyell so often dilated. 

 The mounds are all overgrown with dense forest, and one of the large 

 trees was estimated to be 800 years old, while other observers con- 

 sider the forest-growth to indicate an age of at least 1,000 years. But 



1 Wilson's " Prehistoric Man," third edition, vol. ii., pp. 123-130. 



