84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



civilization, once inhabited the central portion of the United States." 

 In his preface he sums up the popular idea in the following : " The 

 mystery surrounding these lost people creates a fascination which is 

 greatly increased in the mind of the student of nature as he lingers 

 among the ruins which invite his attention and rivet his eye. Stand- 

 ing upon one of the monuments the lover of the mysterious will lose 

 himself in mediation. . . ." 



Beside the many local antiquarians and historians in New York 

 such men as Henry Schoolcraft, E. G. Squier and Dr E. H. Davis, 

 Franklin B. Hough, T. Apoleon Cheney and Dr Frederick Larkin, 1 

 described, surveyed and speculated upon the earthworks of New 

 York. 



Wonderful things are ascribed to this ancient race, which is de- 

 scribed by the early writers as highly civilized, as making implements 

 better than the Indians possibly could and as erecting earthworks 

 that proved them quite familiar with geometry. One writer even 

 pretends to have discovered how the mounds were erected. He 

 claimed to have found a copper tablet having engraved upon it a 

 mastodon in harness. 1 This is said to have been sent to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution but it seems never to have reached that place. 



Archeologists who have spent many years in excavating mounds 

 and who have studied the problem of the mounds and the builders 

 of the mounds have discovered many facts that prove the fallacy of 

 the old fancies concerning them. Among those who have explored, 

 observed and written in the modern methodological way are Cyrus 

 Thomas of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr William H. Holmes, 

 Prof. Lucien Carr, Prof. F. W, Putnam of Harvard, Prof. William 

 O. Mills of Ohio State University, Prof. Warren K. Moorehead of 

 Andover and Dr Clarence B. Moore. Many other investigators 

 have studied the question in the field and after extended scientific 

 observations and by careful comparison have drawn their conclu- 

 sions. From a lengthy consideration of a wide range of facts we 

 now are warranted in believing the following facts fully established : 



1 The builders of the mounds were Indians of certain tribes whose 

 descendants still live. 



2 The aboriginal artifacts found in the mounds were made by 

 Indians and no native object found in the mounds differs from 

 objects that Indians at the time of the discovery, made or were able 

 to make. 



3 Many true mounds of considerable size are not very old, but; 



1 Larkin, Frederick, in "Ancient Man in America," Randolph, N. Y., 1888.. 



