1 882. 121 Trans. N. Y.Ac. Sci. 



forest at least a thousand years — as shown by two generations, living 

 and dead, of mature forest trees which covered them. 



These ancient people were agricultural in pursuits, built towns of 

 considerable size, and left such abundant traces as to prove that the 

 population of the region they occupied was as great as the present one. 



The degree of advancement in the arts which the relics of the 

 Mound-Builders exhibit is such as to raise them above the condition 

 of absolute savagery, but they were hardly civilized in the present ac- 

 ceptation of the term. Their works were varied in character, and fre- 

 quently of imposing dimensions, and consisted of fortifications, sepul- 

 chral mounds, and extensive structures designed apparently for cere- 

 monial and religious purposes. These are all of earth or rough stone, 

 and there is no evidence of any progress in the mason's art. The 

 buildings were probably of wood, the foundations alone remaining. 

 These people worked the copper-mines of Lake Superior, the oil-wells 

 of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, the lead-veins of Kentucky, and 

 the mica-mines and steatite-quarries of the Alleghany range ; but all 

 this mining in the rock was done by means of stone and wooden im- 

 plements, and the use of fire ; they left no evidence of the possession 

 of other metals than copper, and this was used only in its native state, 

 was never melted, and was fashioned by hammering. They had 

 woven fabrics made with considerable skill from the fibres of plants. 

 Their pottery was generally coarse in material and rude in form, but 

 in some instances was graceful in shape, made of finer clay, and orna- 

 mented with incised or painted designs. Their burial ceremonies were 

 apparently elaborate, and cremation was often practiced. Their bones 

 have generally been found decomposed by age ; but from such as 

 have been preserved, we may infer that in proportions and form of 

 cranium this race resembled the average Indian, and that they be- 

 longed to the great American family of man. 



We have a^ yet no evidence of their possessing domestic animals, 

 and no accurate information in regard to their crops, except that maize 

 was their great staple. 



The wide distribution of marine shells throughout the interior of the 

 continent — used for implements or ornaments, of beads, and of mica 

 and copper, soapstone and flint, all from known localities shows that 

 there was considerable internal commerce, but no positive evidence 

 exists of interchanges with foreign nations. The discovery in the 

 mounds of tablets, engraved with symbols or ornaments of a Mexican 

 type, indicates communication with the civilized occupants of the 

 table-lands ; but the rarity of these relics and the absence of monu- 

 ments from a broad space separating their countries, leads to the infer- 

 ence that their interccurse \\as limited and their relationship not close. 



