336 NORTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 



will be required before we can be expected to believe that any mastodon was 

 ever stoned to deatli by North American Indians. 



There are, indeed, upon record other facts of a similar tendency. We have, 

 however, already exceeded our limits, and we will therefore defer the considera- 

 tion of them to some future opportunity. 



If, however, the facts above recorded justify the conclusion that parts at least 

 of North America once supported a numerous and agricultural population, thon 

 we cannot but ask. What fatal cause has destroyed this earlier civilization ? 

 Why are these fortifications forsaken — these cities in ruins 1 How were the 

 populous nations which once inhabited the rich American valleys reduced to the 

 poor tribes of savages which the Europeans found there ? History suggests by 

 luxury or war. And the archseologist, if he perceive little evidence of the first, 

 finds abundant proof of the second. 



