AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 107 



agree in intellectual advancement with a people that 

 wrought bronze in Europe, and established the reason 

 for styling its products as those of the "Bronze Age," 

 a period intermediate between the Stone and the Iron 

 Ages. However, the graves of the Chiriqui Indians 

 have been found to contain ingeniously wrought uten- 

 sils of gold in its virgin purity, and of gold amalgam- 

 ated with copper, which is a feature in advance of 

 the Bronze Age of Europe. Silver ornaments are oc- 

 casionally found in graves and mounds in various 

 parts of the country. But, notwithstanding the un- 

 mistakable evidence of a knowledge of working the 

 precious metals, this feature does not prove much, for 

 the ores in their purity exist in the country, and 

 could be worked with as little skill as is required to 

 manufacture pottery or to chip flint implements. 



Although the Indian tribes of North America 

 were incapable of making the earthen pottery, imple- 

 ments of flint, and utensils of stone which were de- 

 vised and constructed by the Mound Builders, the 

 natives of Central America, who do not differ essen- 

 tially from many of the Indian tribes found further 

 north, seern to be competent to fashion as high an or- 

 der of weapons, ornaments, and utensils as were exe- 

 cuted by the mound building race. Indeed, there is 

 much to convince the archaeologist and ethnologist 

 that they were all one and the same people, differing 

 no more than the various tribes of modern savages. 



Many of the earth mounds have been opened, 

 and their contents carefully scrutinized. Commonly 

 a perpendicular shaft is sunk from the apex or most 

 prominent point to the bottom of the tumulus, and a 

 drift is carried on a level with the original ground so 

 as to strike the vertical well in the center. At this 



