Sept. 7, 1876] 



NA TURE 



411 



contain a large concave hearth or basin of burnt clay, of per- 

 fectly symmetrical form, on which are found deposited more or 

 less abundant relics, all bearing traces of the action of fire. We 

 are, therefore, only acquainted with such articles as are practi- 

 cally fire-proof. These consist of bone and copper implements 

 and ornaments, discs, and tubes — pearl, shell, and silver beads, 

 more or less injured by the fire — ornaments cut in mica, orna- 

 mental pottery, and numbers of elaborate carvings in stone, 

 mostly forming pipes for smoking. The metallic articles are all 

 formed by hammering, but the execution is very good ; plates of 

 mica are found cut into scrolls and circles ; the pottery, of which 

 very few remains have been found, is far superior to that of any 

 of the Indian tribes, since Dr. Wilson is of opinion that they 

 must have been formed on a wheel, as they are often of uniform 

 thickness throughout (sometimes not more than one-sixth of an 

 inch) polished, and ornamented with scrolls and figures of birds 

 and flowers in delicate relief. But the most instructive objects 

 are the sculptured stone pipes, representing not only various 

 easily recognisable animals, but also human head>, so weil exe- 

 cuted that they appear to be portraits. Among the animals, not 

 only are such native forms as the panther, bear, jotter, wolf, 

 beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, frog, rattlesnake, and many 

 others, well represented, but also the manatee, which perhaps 

 then ascended the Mississippi as it now does the Amazon, and 

 the toucan, which could hardly have been obtained nearer than 

 Mexico. The sculptured heads are especially remarkable, be- 

 cause they present to us the features of an intellectual and civi- 

 lised people. The nose in some is perfectly straight, and neither 

 prominent nor dilated, the mouth is small, and the lips thin, 

 the chin and upper lip are short, contrasting with the pon- 

 derous jaw of the modern Indian, while the cheek-bones pre- 

 sent no marked prominence. Other examples have the nose 

 somewhat projecting at the apex in a manner quite unlike the 

 features of any American indigenes, and, although there are 

 some which show a much coarser face, it is verj' difficult to see 

 in any of them that close resemblance to the Indian type which 

 these sculptures have been said to exhibit. The few authentic 

 crania from the mounds present corresponding features, being 

 far more symmetrical and better developed in the frontal region 

 than those of any American tribes, although somewhat re- 

 sembling them in the occipital outline ; ^ while one was described 

 by its discoverer (Mr. W. Marshall Anderson) as " a beautiful 

 skull worthy of a Greek." 



The antiquity of this remarkable race may perhaps not be very 

 great, as compared with the prehistoric man of Europe, although 

 the opinions of some writers on the subject seem affected by that 

 " parsimony of time " on which the late Sir Charles Lyell so often 

 dilated. The mounds are all overgrown with dense forest, and one 

 of the large trees was estimated t» be eight hundred years old, 

 while other observers consider the forest growth to indicate an age 

 of at least 1,000 years. But it is well known that it requires several 

 generations of trees to pass away before the growth on a deserted 

 clearing comes to correspond with that of the surrounding virgin 

 forest, while this forest, once established, may go on growing 

 for an unknown number of thousands of years. The 800 or 

 1,000 years estimate fiom the growth of existing vegetation is a 

 minimum which has no bearing whatever on the actual age of 

 these mounds, and we might almost as well attempt to deter- 

 mine the time of the glacial epoch from the age of the pines or 

 oaks which now grow on the moraines. 



The important thing for us, however, is that when Norih 

 Anierjca was first settled by Europeans, the Indian tribes 

 inhabiting it had no knowledge or tradition of any preceding 

 race" 'o/, higher civilisation than, themselves. Yet we find that 

 *S^clt* a race existed ; that they must have been populous 

 and have lived under some established government ; whi'e 

 there are signs that they practised agriculture largely, as 

 indeed they must have done to have supported a popula- 

 tion capable of executing such gigantic works in such vast 

 profusion — for it is stated that the mounds and earthworks of 

 various kinds in the state of Ohio alone amounts to between 

 eleven and twelve thousand. In their habits, customs, religion, 

 and arts, they differed strikingly from all the Indian tribes ; 

 while their love of art and of geometric forms, and their capa- 

 city for executing the latter upon so gigantic a scale, render it 

 probable that they were a really civilised people, although the 

 form their civilisation took may have been vcy different from 

 that of later people subject to very different influences, and the 

 inheritors of a longer series of ancestral civilisations. We have 

 here, at all events, a striking example of the transition, over an 

 I Wilson's "Prehistoric Man," 3rd ed. vol. ii. pp. 123-130. 



extensive country, from comparative civilisation to comparative 

 barbarism, the former having left no tradition, and hardly any 

 trace of influence on the latter. 



As Mr. Mott well remarks : — Nothing can be more striking 

 than the fact that Easter Island and North America both give 

 the same testimony as to the origin of the savage life found in 

 them, although in all circumstances and surroundings the two cases 

 are so different. If no stone monuments had been constructed in 

 Easter Island, or mounds, containing a few relics saved from 

 fire, in the United States, we might never have suspected the 

 existence of these ancient peoples. He argues, thertfore, that it 

 is very easy for the records of an ancient nation's life entirely to 

 perish, or to be hidden from observation. Even the arts of 

 Nineveh and Babylon were unknown only a generation ago, and 

 we have only just discovered the facts about the mound- builders 

 of North America. 



But other parts of the American continent exhibit parallel 

 phenomena. Recent investigations show that in Mexico, Central 

 America, and Pen., the existing race of Indians has been pre- 

 ceded by a distinct and more civilised race. This is proved by 

 the sculptures of the ruined cities of Central America, by the 

 more ancient terra-cottas and paintings of Mexico, and by the 

 oldest portrait-pottery of Peru. All alike show markedly non- 

 Indian features, while they often closely resemble modem Euro- 

 pean types. Ancient crania, too, have been found in all these 

 countries, presenting very different characters from those of any 

 of the modern indigenous races of America.^ 



There is one other striking example of a higher being suc- 

 ceeded by a lower degree of knowledge, which is in danger of 

 being forgotten because it has been made the foundation ot 

 theories which seem wild and fantastic, and are probably in 

 great part erroneous. I allude to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, 

 whose form, dimensions, structure, and uses have recently been 

 the subject of elaborate works by Prof. Piazzi Smyth. Now, the 

 admitted facts about this pyramid are so interesting and so appo- 

 site to the subject we are considering, that I beg to recall them 

 to your attention. Most of you are aware that this pyramid has 

 been carefully explored and measured by successive Egyptolo- 

 gists, and that the dimensions have lately become capable of 

 more accurate determination owing to the discovery of some of 

 the original casing-stones and the clearing away of the earth 

 from the corners of the foundation, showing the sockets in which 

 the comer-stones fitted. Prof. Smyth devoted many months of 

 work with the best instruments in order to fix the dimensions and 

 angles of all accessible parts of the stmcture ; and he has carefully 

 determined these by a comparison of his own and all previous 

 measures, the best of which agree pretty closely with each other. 

 The results arrived at are — 



1. That the pyramid is truly square, the sides being equal and 

 the angles right angles. 



2. That the four sockets on which the four first stones of the 

 corners rested are truly on the same level. 



3. That the direction of the sides are accurately to the four 

 cardinal points. 



4. That the vertical height of the pyramid bears the same 

 proportion to its circumference at the base, as the radius of a 

 circle does to its circumference. 



Now all these measures, angles, and levels are accurate, not 

 as an ordinary surveyor or builder could make them, but to such 

 a degree as requires the very best modem instruments and all the 

 refinements of geodetical science to discover any error at all. In 

 addition to this we have the wonderful perfection of the work- 

 manship in the interior of the pyramid, the passages and 

 chambers being lined with huge blocks of stones fitted with the 

 utmost accuracy, whle every part of the building exhibits the 

 highest structural science. 



In all these respects this largest pyramid surpasses every other 

 in Egypt. Yet it is universally admitted to be the oldest, and 

 also the oldest historical building in the world. 



Now these admitted facts about the Great Pyramid are surely 

 remarkable, and worthy of the deepest consideration. They are 

 facts which, in the pregnant words of the late Sir John Herschel, 

 "according to received theories ought not to happen," and 

 which, he tells us, should therefore be kept ever present to our 

 minds, since "they belong to the class of facts which serve as 

 the clue to new discoveries." According to modem theories, the 

 higher civilisation is ever a growth and an outcome from a pre- 

 ceding lower state ; and it is inferred that this progress is visible 

 to us throughout all history and in all the material records of 

 human intellect. But here we have a building which marks the 

 ^ Wilson's " Prehistoric Man," 3rd ed. vol. iL pp. 125, 144. 



