34 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The first volume of the Archa?ologia Americana contains, besides the principal 

 memoir, communications from various correspondents of the Society, relating to the 

 same subject, and bearing different dates, from 1815, to 1820. 



Among these is a series of characteristic papers by the learned Dr. Samuel L. 

 Mitchell ; who, as chairman of the Committee on Indian affairs in the United States 

 Senate for several years, had been accustomed to a good deal of intercourse with 

 the aborigines. 



The work, as a whole, may probably be regarded as an exponent of the opinions 

 of investigators at that period, as well as an embodiment of facts which had then 

 been ascertained. 



Mr. Atwater assumes that the present race of Indians was most numerous near 

 the sea, and in the northern and eastern portions of the United States, as shown 

 by the greater quantity of arrow-heads, and other implements of war and peace, 

 found in those regions ; that of the few eartJitvorks discovered east of the Alleghanies, 

 the most northerly is near Black River, south of Lake Ontario, in New York, and 

 the most easterly at Oxford, on the Chenango river, in the same State ; while west 

 of the Alleghanies, and as far as the Rocky Mountains, tumuli are numerous; and 

 in the eastern valley of the Mississippi, remains of a more remarkable character 

 are met with, from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, that gradually increase in size 

 and frequency towards the south. Some of these structures he believes to have 

 been fortifications ; others sacred inclosures, with their mounds of sacrifice, or sites 

 of temples ; others places of diversion ; and others mounds of burial. 



The contents of the tumuli are described as articles of pottery, implements and 

 ornaments of stone, similar to those of modern Indians ; figures wrought in stone ; 

 carved pipe-bowls ; articles of copper, such as tubes, bracelets, arrow-heads, pipes, 

 «fec, of rude workmanship; beads of bone or ivory; mirrors of mica; marine shells; 

 and, in a few instances, ornaments plated with silver. Knives and swords of iron 

 were also supposed to be indicated by their oxidized remains. 



The skeletons from the mounds are represented as those of a people unlike our 

 present Indians — the latter being tall, slender, and straight-limbed ; the former 

 short and thick, rarely over five feet in height ; their faces short and broad, with 

 rather high cheek bones ; their foreheads low, their eyes very large, and their chins 

 broad . 



The relics were said to be found, in some instances, at the bases of excavated 

 mounds, in connection with one or more skeletons lying upon hearths or altars of 

 burnt clay; the whole having been subjected to the action of fire, implying a cere- 

 monial of sepulture or sacrifice, followed by the heaping of earth upon the remains. 



Plans are given of the most prominent works in Ohio; where are found nearly 

 all the varieties of form and construction which had then been recognized, except 

 such as belong to the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. Concerning the 

 latter, Mr. Atwater's information was limited to general accounts of inexact obser- 

 vations ; and he does not undertake to exhibit their figures or dimensions, although 

 some relics from that section are engraved with those of other parts of the country. 



The growth of generations of forests over these remains, and the changes in the 

 levels and courses of streams on whose ancient banks they are situated, are applied 



