Miscellaneous Intelligence. 439 



tiles, constitute a large class of these ancient relics. They are cut from 

 various kinds of stone, and in many instances from porphyry. Several 

 highly finished sculptures of the human head are deserving of notice, 

 and probably convey an idea of the physical character of the people. 

 A single skull, the only one out of many hundreds discovered in frag- 

 ments, which has been preserved entire, and which our explorers are 

 satisfied belongs to the primitive people, is all we have, aside from these, 

 to enable us to form an opinion of the race. 



In examining the remains, we discover articles which show the ex- 

 tent of their intercourse with other parts of the country. Thus, there 

 are instruments of obsidian, a volcanic substance found only in Mexico 



native copper and lead from Lake Superior and the Upper Missis- 

 sippi — marine shells and cetacean teeth from the sea, and numbers of 



pearls of great beauty. 



But the mounds and their contents are but a small portion of inter- 

 esting facts made known by these gentlemen, for we consider the vast 

 earth-works the most remarkable. Their labors embrace surveys of 

 more than one hundred works of this description, some of them miles 

 in extent. Others are vast enclosures covering a space equal to that 

 occupied by the city of New York. Again, we see fortified places, in 

 the construction of which modern military science might perhaps de- 

 rive some useful hints. 



The work in question will embrace the details of these most curious 

 and interesting explorations, and will be illustrated with several hundred 

 wood engravings in the highest style of the art. These will exhibit rep- 

 resentations of the relics discovered— views of the mounds and other 

 ancient remains— sections, plans, &c. It will also contain seventy 

 quarto lithographic plans, being the surveys of the other works alluded 

 to, laid down on an accurate scale. What will be the extent of the let- 

 ter-press we are unable to say, but it will probably exceed 500 quarto 

 pages. 



Such is a very brief account of the discoveries which this work will 

 make known. The facts deduced from them open a new era in our 

 aboriginal history. The question will naturally arise, at what period, 

 and by whom, were these works erected ? What has become of the 

 people ? Had they any connexion with the nations of the other hemi- 

 sphere ? &c &c 



The 'relics and the works themselves aid but little in determining the 

 period when they were made. When the country was settled, they 

 were covered with large trees, exhibiting as great an age as the forest 

 around them. But there are other facts connected with their position, 

 which show that great physical changes have taken place since their 

 creation. These aid us in determining their antiquity, winch must be 

 reckoned by thousands of years rather than by centuries. 



Many analogies are presented to our explorers, in investigating he 

 antiquities and primitive history of some of the earlier nations ot the 

 Old World. The serpent and egg, which has a prominent p ace in the 

 mythology of Egypt and India, typifying a universal principle, has ac- 

 tually been found in Ohio, in a well denned serpent 1200 feet in length 

 formed of earth, in the act of swallowing an egg. Some sjriking anal- 

 ogies with the Druidical rites, are also discovered. The Phallic wor- 



