626 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



Cdurses. There is no good reason for suiiposing that the luouud-builders would have 

 avoided building upon that terraee while they ereeted their works promiscuously 

 upon all the others. 



While it may be true that few (for there are some) aucieut works 

 occur on the last formed river terrace in Ohio, for the vei"y good reason 

 that the builders had learned, probably by sad experience, that this 

 lower terrace was subject to repeated overtiows, it js well known that 

 in other sections, as, for example, along the southern and middle Mis- 

 sissippi, where this arrangement of successive terraces is not found, the 

 mounds as a rule are on what is known as the "bottom" or flat valley 

 which borders the river throuj^hout most of its course. In fact, they 

 are so common on levels sulyect to overflow as to lead many who are 

 cognizant of this to believe they were built for the purpose of raising 

 the dwellings of the inhal)itants above the floods. Xor is this belief 

 without some foundation if credence is given to the following state- 

 ment of Garcilasso de la Vega.' Speaking of the inundation which 

 occurred when Moscoso was preparing to go down the Mississippi, he 

 says : 



During similar inundations or risings in tin; great river, the Indians contrive to 

 li\e on any high or lofty ground or hills, and if there are none they build them 

 with their own hands, principally for the dwellings of the eaciciues; they are 3 or 4 

 " estados " highfrom the ground, bnilt on heavy timlier firmly fixed in the ground, 

 with stakes intervening, and on top of these they place other timber, all of which 

 is roofed over and divided into four ])art8to contain their provisions, their valuables, 

 etc. 



This description, which is somewiiat confused, appears to a])ply to 

 the mound and dwelling on it, or a kind of scaftblding. Throughout 

 eastei'u Arkansas, and at some points in southeast ^lissouri, the 

 mounds are often the only retreat for cattle and other stock in time of 

 high water. One great hindrance to the mound explorations carried 

 on in this region by the United States Bureau of Ethnology has been 

 the unwillingness of the owners of mounds, on this account, to have 

 them opened. 



A foolish idea li;is iirevailcd in the minds of many x)ersons that the 

 Indians and mound-builders were wiser in this respect than the people 

 of the present day, and would never plant their villages where they 

 were subject to overflow. In addition to the evidence already given it 

 happens that in one of the old authorities there is mentioned an inci- 

 dent bearing on this question which concerns both mound-builders and 

 Indians, if the two people be distinct. 



Herrera, who generally follows Garcilasso, but who certainly had 

 access to other data which arc not now extant, states - that when Mos- 

 coso, who was placed in command of the Spanish expedition after De 

 Soto's death, returned to an Indian town named Amenoya, situated on 



'Hist. Fla., p. 231. Edition before jiieutioned. 



= Doeade iv. Bk. x, Cl).-i]). n, vol. vi. )i. 18, Stevens'.'! Knj;. tTaie.1. (1726) ; Decadi- vii. Hk. vu. ( li;!!). v, 

 p. j;!G. ofori-r. Sp. 



