CHAPTER II 



CLIFF-DWELLERS AND MOUND-BUILDERS 



They also know, 

 And reason not contemptibly. 



— Milton. 



IN America are the remains of one of the great 

 epochs in the drama of history. On the high 

 plateaux of Mexico, in the primeval jungles of 

 Yucatan, in the ancient mounds of Peru, in the 

 Western hills of the United States, we find 

 America's Babylon, Nineveh, and Thebes. Among 

 the ruins of the cliff-dwellers is a fascinating bur- 

 ied history which stretches back to the beginnings 

 of man himself. 



And second only in interest to these human cliff- 

 dwellers are the bird cliff-dwellers, little beings who 

 to-day have a mountain-side civilisation compara- 

 ble to that of our semi-civilised forbears. 



Perhaps the most interesting thing to us about 

 these cave-dwellers, cliff-dwellers, and burrowers is 

 that human beings have sought in such dwellings 

 security, real or imagined. The burrowers are not, 



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