720 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



of the shelter.* From the preceding cut, Fig. 29, it will be seen that there 

 is a remarkable similarity between the tracks and other markings upon 

 this rock and those of the Barnesville and Newark ' ' track-rocks" of Ohio, 

 as figured in the Ohio Centennial Report, pp. 91, 92, 93, 95, and pp. 58 and 

 59 of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of New YorJc. 



Mr. J. H. Salisburyt maintains, " that the ancient bird-track char- 

 acter belonged to the mound-builders is evident from the fact that it is 

 found among their works constructed of soil on a large scale. One of 

 these bird-track mounds occurs in the center of the large circular i»- 

 closure near Newark, Ohio, now standing in the Licking County Fair 

 Grounds." On the lowlands, half a mile south of this rock-shelter, 

 are sixteen mounds, in a straight line, running a little east of north, and 

 directly toward the rock-shelter. These mounds are all about 2i feet 

 high and about 25 feet in diameter. Nothing has been found in them. 

 Those toward the south are composed largely of slabs of Burlington 

 limestone obtained from the neighboring bluff, while those toward the 

 north are composed wholly of earth. Another similar row of mounds is 

 found in Scott County. 



In conclusion, I will add, the dividing line between the mound- 

 builders and the modem Indian — that is, the Indians of the Mississippi 

 Valley of two hundred years ago, and especially those inhabiting the 

 lower part of that great valley, is not so distinct as is generally sup- 

 jwsed. It is almost the universal opinion of those who have made the 

 subject a study that the mound-builders were not the ancestors of the 

 red Indian, but, on the contrary, were a distinct race, much further 

 advanced in civilization, and that by choice or pressure of barbarous 

 tribes from the north they abandoned their homes, or that they were 

 exterminated by war, famine, disease, or domestic dissensions. Fully 

 imbued with this idea, the writer began the study of the relics of 

 tliis nameless race, but in the end has been compelled to abandon this 

 received opinion and to conclude that the mound-builders were the an- 

 cestors of the southern tribes. There is no distinctive feature, whether 

 physical or anatomical, whether in art or custom, that would stand the 

 test of criticism as jieculiar to that ancient race. If the comparison is 

 made between the earthworks, implements, copper oraaments, pottery, 

 and other relics of the mound-builders and the works and character of the 

 modern Indian, with a straw hat on his head, a Mackinaw blanket and 

 calico shirt about his shoulders, skinning animals with a steel knife of 

 yankee manufacture, cooking his food in an iron pot from the same 

 source, and all the manhood that was ever in him crushed out by fire- 

 water and contact with the worst elements of civilization and fear of a 

 dominant race, then, indeed, the line is distinct and well marked; but 

 if instead of the modern Indian we substitute the red man, who lived 



*A plaster cast of this track- rock was presented to the Smithsonian Museum in 1878. 

 t Centennial Report, p. 96. 



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