60 Some Considerations on the Mound Builders. 



Another ground on which the great antiquity of the 

 mounds is supported, is the absence of tradition con- 

 cerning them among the Indians. But it is only fair 

 to remember that their traditions are mostly worthless; 

 that at best they extend back but a short period ; and 

 that the Indians were migratory. Ohio, Kentucky, and 



States," published since this paper was read, that he has but one 

 skull showing signs of artificial compression, and that was found 

 in Indiana. He claims in this book to have discovered a special 

 type of crania, which he calls the skull of the Mound Builder: a 

 type so distinct that it must have belonged to a wholly distinct 

 race ; a type so degraded that it must have belonged to a very 

 early stage in the development of man. 



This theory is based upon nearly a dozen skulls and fragments 

 in his possession. Four of them were taken by Dr. Harper from 

 the works near Merom, Indiana ; one came from a mound at 

 Dunleith, Illinois, opposite Dubuque ; the rest were found near 

 Chicago. 



The statement as to these remains would be more satisfactory 

 if it were more definite as to the precise condition in which they 

 were found. It appears from Mr. Putnam's paper in the fifteenth 

 volume '* Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," 

 that besides the mounds, there are, at Merom, also some stone 

 graves, made by placing thin slabs on edge along the sides and 

 ends, and covering with fiat stones; and that Dr. Hai per took 

 three skeletons from these stone graves. Now, graves of this 

 form are not uncommon near the Ohio, Cumberland, and Ten- 

 nessee rivers. But this form of burial is so unlike the mound 

 burial that it seems to be the usage of a people different from the 

 nation that constructed the mounds. And not only different, but 

 also more recent. For, as a rule, the skeletons found in these 

 superficial, slightly covered graves are in much better preserva- 

 tion than those buried under the mounds. Moreover, skeletons 

 in some of these graves, in those near Nashville, bear marks of a 

 disease introduced by the whites (Jones' Antiquities of Southern 

 Indians, p. 222). And, in fine, the Indians used this mode of 



