THOMAS.] UNSATISFACTORY THEORIES. 631 



double the true count, autl that the one with 800 rings was more likely 

 under than over 400 years old. Botanists apparently neglect the only 

 satisfactorj' test, which is, to examine the rings and measure the growth 

 of trees of difterent species whose age is known. No other test can he 

 accepted by the other branches of science. 



It is also contended that the magnitude of some of the earthworks 

 indicates a much higher culture and a more systematic government 

 and centralized power than have been found in Indian history. That 

 there must have been sufficient intelligence to plan the works is evi- 

 dent; that there must have been some means of bringing into harmony 

 the views of the people and of combining their forces is also apparent. 

 But the fact that at the discovery of the country several of the tribes 

 were accustomed (as will hereafter be shown) to build villages, surround 

 them with palisades and moats, and in some cases to erect just such 

 mounds as we now find, shows, beyond contradiction, that they had the 

 necessary intelligence to plan such works and the means of combining 

 forces to build them. 



The supposition of a lost race, or of a migration from the more cul- 

 tured people of Central America, aids but little in explaining the means 

 by which they^were built, as it does not suiiply them with beasts of 

 burden nor metallic implements to assist them. There is nothing found 

 in these monuments or elsewhere to indicate that the mound-builders 

 had any other implements or any other means of conveying earth or 

 of building these works than the Indians possessed. 



It is rather strange that most writers who claim for these remains 

 such high antiquity contend at the same time for a much more advanced 

 culture than that attained by the Indians. It is true that when we 

 stand at the base of the great Cahokia mound and study its vast pro- 

 portions, we can scarcely bring ourselves to believe it was built with- 

 out some other means of collecting and conveying material than that 

 possessed by the Indians. But what other means could a lost race 

 have had ? The Indians had wooden spades, baskets, skins of animals, 

 wooden and clay vessels, and textile fabrics; they also had stone imple- 

 ments. Moreover, the fact should be borne in mind that this great 

 mound is unique in respect to size, being more than treble in contents 

 that of any other true mound in the United States. Nor has it yet 

 been ascertained with satisfactory certainty that it is entirely artificial. 

 The very large mounds are the exceptions, there being but four or five 

 of them in the entire area under consideration, the contents of the 

 largest, save of the single exception noticed, being less than 5,000,000 

 cubic feet. In fact, when they are measured accurately the height is 

 found iri some cases to diminish to half that usually given, as in tlie 

 case of the one near New ]Madiid, Missouri; and as a general rule the 

 labor necessary to build them could not have exceeded that which has 

 often been performed by Indians. It is also more than likely that all 

 the people of a tribe, both men and women, aided in the work, and that 



