116 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the Society ] and George H. Black, Edinboro', Scotland, and 

 Hermann Ten Kate, The Hague, Holland, as corresponding 

 members. 



Mr. H. N. Bates read a "Memorandum concerning certain 

 Mounds in Pontotoc county, Mississippi," visited by J. M. Pollard, 

 Esq., of Louisiana. No abstract. 



Mr. O. T. Mason read a paper prepared by Daniel G. Brinton, 



" On the Probable Nationality of the Mound-Builders." 



Dr. Brinton said : Further reading on the subject, and also the 

 observations during a trip made to the principal monuments in 

 Ohio, have confirmed me in the opinion that we need not go any 

 farther than the Southern tribes to find the modern representatives 

 of the mound-builders. Since I wrote the article on the mound- 

 builders, Mr. Horatio Hale has published his suggestive paper, in 

 which he adds strength to this position by linguistic evidence. 



It would probably be hasty to point to any one of the Southern 

 tribes as being specifically the descendants of the nation who con- 

 structed the great works in the Scioto and Miami Valleys. The 

 evidence is ample that nearly all the tribes of the Gulf States and 

 Lower Mississippi were accustomed to throw up works of similar 

 character and often greater magnitude. They were of radically 

 diverse languages, but nearly in the same plane of culture. The 

 Natchez, the Taensas, the Chqctaws, the Creeks, the Cherokees, 

 and others might put in equal claims. The last mentioned asserted 

 that they once lived in the Upper Ohio Valley, and that they built 

 the Grave Creek and other mounds, and they are borne out in such 

 claims by various historic data. 



With regard to the Shawnees, it has not been sufficiently recog- 

 nized by writers that their name in the Algonkin dialects is not a 

 national appellation, but a geographical term. It means simply 

 " Southerners," and in its earliest employment bore no special ref- 

 erence to the tribe whom we call Shawnees. It first appears in a 

 map drawn in 1614, intended to show the Dutch colony around 

 New Amsterdam. In this the "Sawannew" are located as inhabit- 

 ing the whole of Southern New Jersey ; whereas the Shawnees, as 

 we understand the term first came to the notice of the New York 

 colony in 1692. On this map it simply means " Southern rivers" 

 with reference to the position of New York harbor. 



