MILITARY CHARACTER OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 475 



Although the mound-builders frequently constructed walls and mounds of rough stone, there 

 is no instance where there are marks of cutting-tools upon them. Loose rocks are laid up 

 rudely like a stone fence, or piled in heaps containing hundreds of cubic yards ; but none of 

 them are trimmed or cut. This could not have been for the want of metal implements, as 

 their copper chisels are hard enough for such work. They had no iron or steel, but this is 

 not necessary, as we know the pyramids were built with tools made of copper and tin. 



Their stone axes are made from obsidian, greenstone, and porphyry, much harder than the 

 common sand stone and lime rock of this country. The stone mauls of Lake Superior, like 

 the axes of Ohio, have grooves around them for the purpose of attaching a withe to answer the 

 purpose of a handle. Tools, whether of flint or metal, hard enough to sculpture obsidian 

 and trap, were sufficient to trim and cut stone for masonry, if those who used them had 

 chosen to do so. 



Neither had this mysterious race discovered the art of metallurgy. All the copper imple- 

 ments they have left in the mounds and in the copper mines are made cold ivrought, from 

 native metal, never melted. We must not, however, hastily infer, because distinctive 

 weapons of war have not been found, that the race of the Mounds were entirely without 

 them. A club, somewhat resembling those which the South Sea Islanders use in their bat- 

 tles, was discovered in Geauga County, Ohio, many years since. It was of Nicaragua wood, 

 very heavy, and being in a sound condition, was cut into chips and used for coloring cloth. 



Although there is no necessary connection between this club, found upon the surface, and 

 the wars of the mound-builders, there is some probability that it may have belonged to them. 

 No metal tools have yet been discovered that can be regarded as shovels, picks, or hoes, yet 

 extensive excavations made by them are visible all over the country. In a single earth- 

 work in Warren County, Ohio, the estimated excavation and embankment is 600,000 cubic 

 yards. They may have had picks of hard wood tipped with horn or bone. 



Their shovels may have been of wood, like those found in the ancient mines of Lake Su- 

 perior ; or they may have been of copper, like the one figured on page 201 of Mr. Squier's 

 work, plate 87, No. 4. Where ancient mounds have been opened, the appearance of the 

 earth is mottled, as though it had been brought in bags, or in small parcels from different 

 places. It must have been a difficult matter for them to work up the tough clay and hard 

 pan of Ohio, but it is clear they had means to do it. 



They frequently took earth for their mounds evenly from the surface, leaving no per- 

 ceptible excavation. They did not quarry the solid rock, nor have they left on the loose 

 stones which they used any marks of metal tools. But on Lake Superior their labors were 

 applied to the hardest of rocks. Most of the tools they have left are adapted to that pur- 

 pose only, though some of them are intended to cut wood, like those found in the Ohio 

 mounds. There are rude axes, chisels, and adzes of copper, with mauls of copper and of 

 stone. 



In the ancient quarries or open cuts of the copper-bearing rocks, they have frequently left 

 behind them copper wedges, in form precisely like the steel gad of the modern stone-splitter. 

 Nothing like a metal pick has been found. They softened the trap rock by fires, breaking- 

 it up with their mauls and gads. The weapons which I now bring to notice are principally 

 from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Canada. They may have been intended for the twofold pur- 

 pose of hunting and mortal combat. There are also rude copper knives, occasionally dis- 

 covered upon the surface in the same northern regions. None of them having, however, the 



