APPENDIX : ELEPHANT PIPES AND INSCRIBED TABLETS. 347 



doubtless, but very few compared with the whole number, aud some of them are 

 doubtless of great antiquity- And during all the centuries of history when these 

 mounds were erected some tribes may have been destroyed, and there may be 

 mounds built by tribes whose history is lost. Some of the Indian tribes occupying 

 the c(jntinent at the advent of the white man were mound-builders, and a few 

 mounds have been built since that time. The great number were erected prior to 

 that time by these tribes, and perhaps by others still existing, but of whose mound- 

 building we have yet no knowledge, and still others may have been built by tribes 

 that are lost." 



In his reference to mound-building by "tribes whose history is lost," Major Pow- 

 ell seems to almost abandon his own, and to accept the theory of Squier and Davis, 

 that the Mound-builders were a distinct, and are now an e.xtinct, race. 



C. E. P. 



February igt/i, i8Sb. 



