XXXVlll 



P K E F A C E . 



To Professors B. Silliman and B. Silliman, jr., of New Haven ; Prof. Jeffries 

 Wyman, of Boston ; Prof. Leavis Agas.siz, of Cambridge ; S. F. Havens, Esq., 

 Librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester; and to numerous 

 other gentlemen in various parts of the Union, and particularly to Geo. R. Gliddon, 

 Esq., whose lectures and publications upon the subject of Egyptian Archaeology 

 have given a new and powcrl'ul impulse to cognate researches in America, and 

 invested them with a popular interest indispensable to their successful prose- 

 cution, — to all of these are the warmest thanks of the investigators due. 



It will not be improper here to mention, that the literary part of the present 

 work, the responsible task of arranging and embodying for publication the original 

 MSS. and other materials jointly got together in the course of these investiga- 

 tions, has devolved mostly upon the gentleman whose name stands first upon the 

 title-page, who has also prepared the plans, drawings, and other illustrations. 

 The other gentleman has been engaged for a number of years in researches 

 connected with our ancient monuments, and in collecting relics of aboriginal art ; 

 and it is due to him to say, that the investigations here recorded, so far as they 

 involve inquiries in natural science, have principally been made by him. He has 

 also sustained the larger proportion of the expenses attending these explorations, 

 and devoted considerable time to the restoration and arrangement of the relics 

 recovered from the mounds. 



' Before concluding these prefatory remarks, — already extended beyond the 

 original design, — we may be permitted to say that it has been a constant aim in 

 the preparation of this memoir, t» present facts in a clear and concise form, 

 with such simple deductions and generalizations alone, as may follow from 

 their careful consideration. With no hypothesis to combat or sustain, and with 

 a desire only to arrive at truth, whatever its bearings upon received theories 

 and current prejudices, everything like mere speculation has been avoided. 

 Analogies, apparently capable of reflecting light upon many important questions 

 connected with an enlarged view of the subject, have seldom been more than 

 indicated. Their full consideration, as also that of the relations which the ancient 

 monuments of the Mississippi valley bear to those of other portions of America 

 and the world, has not been attempted here. To such an uud(M-taking, involving 

 long and careful research, as also a more comprehensive view of the monuments 



^ of the central parts of the continent, this memoir is only preliminary. It yet 

 remains to be seen whether all the ancient monuments of the Mississippi valley 

 were constructed upon similar principles ; whether they denote a conunon origin, 

 and whether they were probably contemporaneous or otherwise in their erection. 

 It remains to be settled whether the singular and anomalous structures of Wis- 

 consin :in<l llic North-west jirc |>art of the same grand svstcni of defensive. 



