MONUMENTS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 119 



successfully combat this hypothesis. The defensive works on the Ohio, on the 

 contrary, possess all the requisites for resisting an enemy and for sustaining a 

 protracted defence. 



We must seek therefore in the contents, as well as in the form and position of 

 these works, for the secret of their origin and purposes. And it is at this stage of 

 our inquiry, that the lack of a systematic and extended investigation, conducted on 

 philosophical principles, is most sensibly felt. Some of these structures, it is stated^ 

 where their formation is disclosed by slides or the wasting action of the rivers, 

 exhibit alternate layers or platforms of earth and burned clay, from base to summit. 

 Others are represented as having alternate layers of earth and human bones in 

 various stages of decomposition. And others still, we are assured, have various 

 horizontal strata of earth and sand, upon which are deposited at various points 

 human remains, implements, pottery, and ornaments. Many of the remains of art 

 exhibit great skill in their construction, more especially the pottery and articles of 

 similar composition. The conical mounds, so far as we are informed, have many 

 features in common with those of a higher latitude. How far the coincidences 

 between them may be traced can only be settled by future inquiries. 



From what has been presented above, it will readily be seen that it is impos- 

 sible, with our present limited knowledge concerning theiB, to form anything like 

 a determinate or satisfactory conclusion respecting the numerous and remarkable 

 remains of the South. The immense mounds that abound there may be vast 

 sepulchres in which the remains of generations were deposited; they may have 

 been the temples and " high places " of a superstitious people, where rites were 

 celebrated and sacrifices performed ; or, they may have answered as the places of 

 last resort, where, when pursued by foes, the ancient people fled to receive the 

 support of their gods and to defend the altars of their religion. Perhaps all of these 

 purposes were subserved by them. What significance may attach to their form ; 

 whether there exists any dependence between their exterior features and their 

 contents ; the dates of the different deposits found in them ; indeed, whatever of 

 design and system which these works may have possessed, and how far they may 

 serve to reflect light upon the character and customs of the people who built them, 

 their religion, their modes of burial, and their arts, — all remain to be determined 

 by careful and systematic investigation, conducted with a view to develop facts 

 rather than to excite wonder. Such an investigation must also finally determine 

 whether these are the remains of the same people whose works are scattered 

 through the more northern States, and whether they were probably contemporaneous 

 in their origin ; and, if the works are of the same people, and not contemporaneous, 

 whether the course of migration was southward or the reverse ; whether the 

 less imposing structures of the Ohio are the remains of a ruder and more 

 warlike but progressive people, or the weaker eftbrts of a colony, pressed by foes 

 and surrounded by difficulties. It may disclose the curious and important fact, that 

 upon the Ohio and Mississippi first originated those elements which afterwards, 

 in a regular course of progress, developed themselves in the gorgeous semi-civili- 

 zation of Mexico and Peru. Or it may, on the contrary, make known the no less 

 interesting fact, that from these centres radiated colonies, which sustained them- 



