1869.] Archseology. 515 



account of the extent and distribution of the rehcs of the ancient 

 " Mound-Builders," a race which, long antecedent to the North- 

 American Indian, once occupied the region of the Great Lakes and 

 the Valley of the Mississippi. The trees which covered these 

 mounds when first discovered by the white settlers, differed in no 

 degree, either of size or form, from those of the surrounding woods. 

 The late Professor Hitchcock, without examination, denied their 

 artificial origin, but subsequent investigations by the geologist and 

 the antiquary, side by side, have proved beyond a doubt that they 

 were formed by human hands. Evidence afibrded by the earth- 

 works has also connected their builders with the ancient copper- 

 miners of Lake Superior, whose operations represent probably the 

 most extensive pre-historic mines in the world. 



Dr. Foster points out that the number and magnitude of these 

 earth-works not only indicate a vast population, but also a people 

 subsisting by agricultural pursuits ; as no mere nomadic race, sub- 

 sisting by the chase, could have devoted the time necessary for the 

 formation of such extensive national works. The earth-work at 

 Cahokia, Ilhnois, is 90 feet high, and has a base of 666 feet; while 

 the famous mound at Grave Creek, Virginia, is 70 feet high, with a 

 base of 333 feet ; and the next in rank is that of Miamisburgh, 

 Ohio, which is 68 feet high, with a base of 284 feet. 



Near Newark, Ohio, the cu-cles, squares, parallel roads, and 

 tumuli, extend over many leagues of ground, and out-rival, in cubical 

 contents, the great Pyramid of Cheops. 



Their weapons were spear and arrow heads, chipped with much 

 skill, out of hornstone or chert ; hammers, generally of porphyry, 

 grooved near the head for the attachment of a withe ; fleshing 

 instruments of the same material, brought down to a blunt edge ; 

 pestles for cracking and grinding corn ; plates of steatite, or chlo- 

 rite slate, pierced with holes to gauge the size of the tlu-ead in 

 spinning; cu'cular discs, like weights, and concave on both sides, 

 ordinarily of porphyry and ground; ornaments like plum-bobs, 

 double-coned, or egg-shaped, and pierced or grooved at one end for 

 the attachment of a string made of specular iron, like that of Lake 

 Superior; lastly, elaborately- wrought pipes, showing that they 

 indulged in the luxury of tobacco. 



They mined extensively the native copper on the shores of Lake 

 Superior, and wrought it into knives, spear-heads, chisels, bracelets, 

 and other personal ornaments. 



They were unacquainted with tin, and had no alloy ; and there 

 is reason to beheve they did not, even ordinarily, smelt the copper, 

 but simply hammered it cold. 



Bracelets of copper have been found in the mounds, enclosing 

 native silver in the unaltered state as it occurs in the mine. 



They had also made considerable advance in the ceramic art, 



2 N 2 



