XLVl REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



conclusion more definite, the examination was extended in 

 various directions. The mounds were excavated and their 

 contents scrutinized; the relics found therein were, like the 

 mounds themselves, compared from locality to locality and 

 from district to district, and also with the relics from foreign 

 earthworks; then the osseous remains and artificial relics of 

 the mounds were compared with the skeletons and art products 

 of the historical period; and it was eventuall}' found that the 

 mound relics are in every respect essentially similar to those 

 of the Indian tribes. Thus, after some years of patient research, 

 extending over a large section of the country and embracing 

 many thousand mounds, the question as to the builders of 

 these works was gradually set at rest — it was shown to the 

 satisfaction of the ethnologists and archeologists engaged in 

 the work, and of other students of the subject in this country 

 and abroad, that the builders of the mounds were unquestion- 

 ably the historical Indians and their ancestors. 



The general results of this research have been set forth in a 

 previous report; but the more special results of several of the 

 collateral lines of study were excluded from that report by 

 reason of the gi'eat volume of the material, and were reserved 

 for other publications. One of these collateral lines of study 

 which was found especially significant, as indicating relations 

 between the mound-builders and the historical Indians, per- 

 tained to textile fabrics. This study was conducted by Mr 

 W. H. Holmes; its results are incorporated in the first of the 

 accompanying treatises. 



In the excavation of the mounds, traces of textile fabrics 

 were frequently found. Generally the j^erisliable textile ma- 

 terials were so far decomposed that little could be learned of 

 the processes of manufacture ; but when the fabric was wrapped 

 around, or otherwise juxtaposed with, implements and orna- 

 ments of copper, it was preserved by the cupric oxide, and 

 under certain other conditions also the fabrics were so well 

 preserved as to permit careful examination. Thus, as the 

 excavations progressed, a considerable quantity of textile fab- 

 rics was brought to light and subjected to comparative study. 

 Meantime, opportunities for the examination of prehistoric fab- 



