80 



AKCHITECTURE 



[b. a. e. 



CAHOKIA MOUND, ILLINOIS. 



vironment, between the buildings of the 

 N. W. coast and those of tlie Pueblo re- 

 gion is most striking. With greater abil- 

 ity, perhaps, than the Pueblos, the north- 

 ern peoples labored under the disadvan- 

 tage of employing materials that rapidly 

 decay, while 

 with the Puelilos 

 the results of the 

 skill and effort 

 of one genera- 

 tion were sup- 

 plemented by 

 those of the 

 next, and the 

 cumulative re- 

 sult was the 

 great pueblo. 

 The lot of the 

 Pueblo tribes 

 fell in the midst 

 of a vast region 

 of cliffs and plateaus, where the means of 

 subsistence admitted of thegrowth of large 

 communities and where the ready-quar- 

 ried stone, with scarcity of wood, led inevi- 

 tably to the I )uilding of houses of masonry. 

 The defensive motive being present, it di- 

 rected the genius of the people toward con- 

 tinued and united effort, and the dwelling 

 group became a great stronghold. Cunui- 

 lative results encouraged cumulative 

 effort; stronger and stronger walls were 

 built, and story grew on story. The art of 

 the stone mason was mastered, the stones 

 were hewn and laid in diversified courses 

 for effect, door and window openings 

 were accurately and symmetrically 

 framed with cut stone and spanned with 

 lintels of stone and wood, and towers of 

 picturesijue outline in picturesque situa- 

 tions, now often in ruins, offer suggestions 

 of the feudal castles of the Old World. 

 (See Clitf'-du'ellings, Piwhlos.) 



Standing quite alone among the build- 

 ing achievements of the tribes n. of Mex- 

 ico are the works of the ancient mound- 

 building Indians of the Mississippi valley 

 and the Southern states. Earthworks, 

 grand in proportions and varied in char- 

 acter, remain as a partial and imperfect 

 index of the extent and nature of the 

 architeccure of these people. The great 

 embankments probably inclosed thriv- 

 ing villages, and the truncated jiyramids 

 must have supported temples or other 

 important structures. But these, built no 

 doubt of wood or bark, have wholly dis- 

 appeared. The nearest approach to per- 

 manent house construction observed in e. 

 United States is found in the clay-covered 

 wattle-work walls of the more southerly 

 tribes ( Thomas ; Adair) . The people had 

 acquired only partial mastery of the build- 

 ing materials within their environment. 

 Earth, sand, and clay, indestructible and 

 always at hand, were utilized for the sub- 



structures and embankments, and the 

 cunuilative growth gave massive and en- 

 during results, but the superstructures 

 were of materials difficult to utilize in an 

 effective manner by a stone-age people 

 and, being sul)ject to rapid decay, were 



not cumulative. 



Had the envi- 

 ronment fur- 

 nished to this 

 group of vigor- 

 ous and talented 

 tribes the mate- 

 rials for adobe 

 cement or plen- 

 tiful deposits of 

 readily quarried 

 stone, the re- 

 sults might have 

 been very differ- 

 ent: themound- 

 Iniilders' culture 

 and the mound-building people might 

 have been no mean factor in the Ameri- 

 can nation to-day. 



The primitive habitations of the Pa- 

 cific slope from the Straits of Fuca to the 

 Gulf of California afford a most instruct- 

 ive lesson. In the N. the vigorous tribes 

 had risen to the task of utilizing the vast 

 forests, but in the S. the improvident and 

 enervated natives were little short of 

 homeless wanderers. In the N. the 

 roomy communal dwellings of the Co- 

 lumbia valley, described by Lewis and 

 Clark, were found, while to the S. one 

 passes through varied environments 

 where timl)erand earth, rocks and caves, 

 rnslies, l)ark, izrass. and Imisli in turn 



Terraced Pyramid 

 iiGH, Restored 



FT. LONG, 



played their i)art in the very primitive 

 house-making achievements of the 

 strangely diversified tribesmen. 



In the highlands of the Great Divide 

 and in the vast inland basins of the N. 

 the building arts did not flourish, and 

 houses of bark, grass, reeds, the skins of 

 animals, and rough timbers covered with 

 earth gave only necessary shelter from 

 winter blasts. In the whole expanse of 

 the forest-covered E. the palisaded for- 



