204: 
it establishes the use of instruments. A standard of measure- 
ment could not otherwise exist, still less be apphed on a 
large scale in geometrical construction; andthe very simplest 
instrument that we can conceive of constitutes no less certain 
evidence of a condition of intellectual development attained 
by this ancient people very different from anything achieved 
by the most advanced Indian tribe.” ‘Thus, taking the 
present state of the native tribes of America, and comparing 
them with the mound-builders, we have a clear case of 
degradation, not of evolution. 
Then, again, these people were artists of no mean order. 
On their stone pipes found in their tumul are carved the 
forms of most of the animals common to the valley. Hach 
creature is represented in its characteristic structure and 
habits. For.instance, one of the pipes is in the form of a 
goose’s head cut in hard black stone. On looking at it from 
the back, the figure becomes a human skull. 
Here, then, we have evidence of the possession of cutting 
tools. More than this, the animals whose forms are carved 
on the objects do not all belong to the region, but include 
some whose habitat is the South continent, such, for instanee, 
as the opossum. ‘This suggests either arts derived from a 
foreign source, and oreo maintained with regions where 
the civilisation of ancient America attained its highest 
development ; or else indicates the migration into the Northern 
continent of a race of ancient people from the central and 
southern parts of America, who brought with them the arts 
and models derived from animals familiar to their fathers in the 
original home of the race. 
It may also be mentioned that the people of these buried 
cities were skilled in the art of making pottery, and were 
acquainted with the use of the potter’s wheel. In a word, 
they were very far removed from the immediate descendants 
of apes. 
In the next place, we have to ask the important question, 
What evidence is there that barbarism was man’s original 
state, and that he raised himself by the exercise of his own 
faculties ? 
To help us to answer this question we must study the 
records of modern savage races. If the modern savage has 
made no progress towar rds civilisation, what evidence is there 
that the primitive races did? ‘What say the travellers who 
have visited these races? Let us hear. Mr. Darwin, when 
speaking of the savages of Tierre del Fuego, says “ that in 
one respect they resemble the brute animals, inasmuch as they 
