336 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



been effected ? Is there no connection between the triumphs of 

 civilized man and the agency by which our fossil specimens were 

 hermetically sealed up in the sandstone rock ? Can we see our 

 streets at midnight illumined with noon-day splendour — our seas 

 traversed by ships in defiance of contrary winds — man outsoaring 

 the eagle in his flight above the clouds, or moving on terra Jirma in 

 cars fleeter than the wind — our comforts and our luxuries minis- 

 tered to, and our energies multiplied in a thousand ways — and for- 

 get that it is to Coal we owe all this ? 



It may be a marvel to us that the earth should have required all 

 this fashioning, and that such a long and elaborate process should 

 have been necessary in the construction of our abode ; but the con- 

 summate skill of the Great Architect who has so admirably adapted 

 it to our use and convenience, we can never sufficiently admire. 



MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



Account of some Crania found in the Ancient Mounds of North 

 America. Whatever relates to the lost nations of North America is inte- 

 resting. The fate of a people which occupied the richest part of that coun- 

 try, for an extent of more than a thousand miles, is involved in the deepest 

 obscuritv. Nothing remains of their history, and we can gather no ideas of 

 what they were and what they did but from the constructions existing in the 

 territories they inhabited. These works are numerous, and scattered over 

 the country, from the lakes of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. They consist 

 of regular lines, having considerable elevations and great extent, of mounds 

 or pyramidal eminences, and of spacious platforms of earth. These different 

 works were adapted for fortifications, for places of worship, and for cemete- 

 ries. Within the last two years, reports had reached the Atlantic States of 

 very extensive remains of structures, indicating the existence of one or more 

 considerable cities in the territory ot Onisconsin, formerly a north-west ter- 

 ritory of the United Stales. The antiquity of some of the numerous works 

 alluded to was great ; there are circumstances which would lead one to refer 

 them to a period eight hundred or a thousand years back. The circular and 

 pyramidal eminences seem to have been destined for two purposes — for 

 places of worship and for cemeteries. Some of them contain immense heaps 

 of bones thrown together promiscuously, as after a bloody battle ; in others 

 the bodies are regularly arranged, and in some there are only one or two 

 bodies : the bones in the last are usually accompanied by silver and copper 

 ornamt-nts, some of which are extremely well wrought. The crania found 

 in these mounds differ from those of the existing Indians, from the Caucasian 

 or European, and, in fact, from all existing nations, as far as they are kiiowi,. 



