130 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



rounded and covered tlie original interments. A nximber of relics 

 were found in this tumulus. But few of the mounds in this region 

 remain intact, and steps should he taken immediately to preserve the 

 small number left. The builders of these mounds were doubtless of 

 a different branch from those of the Red Kiver, and communicated 

 directly with the Mississippi by the streams and lakes which practi- 

 cally form a through canoe route. The country to the direct north of 

 the Eainy River has not been explored, so far as I can learn for 

 mound remains, but the broken character of this section, which is of 

 Laurentian formation, rather inclines me to imagine that none will 

 be found there, because the rule is to find the mounds in the most 

 fertile agricultural districts. Lead, mica, asbestos, gold and silver 

 are found in the rocks of the Lake of the Woods, close at hand to 

 the Rainy River, but there is no record of any of these minerals 

 having been unearthed from the mounds. It is true one piece of 

 ore taken from the hand of a skeleton in the Great Mound has been 

 identified by Dr. Bryce as arsenical iron. Many mounds are situated 

 on the streams flowing from the west into the Red and Assiniboine 

 Rivers, and during this week I have received a communication from 

 a friend who has spent some time in the Distinct of Alberta, in which 

 he stated that " the country is rich in mounds." When it is known 

 that numbers of mounds have been located on the Upper Missouri it 

 is not surprising that they also appear on the streams from the 

 Rockies to the north. Thorough exploration is required to give an 

 exact idea of the geographical areas covered by the northern branches 

 of the mound systems of both the Mississippi and Missouri. That 

 the systems of the Red River and Missouri approach each other closely 

 I proved during the past summer. Groups of the first extend to the 

 headwaters of the Pembina and Souris rivers, which are comparatively 

 close to the Missouri and on the old main trail between the Red 

 River and Missouri, which was the route taken by Avar parties of tlie 

 Crees, Assiniboines, and Ojibways from the neighbourhood of Lake 

 Winnipeg, and in more modern times by the Red River half-breed 

 buffalo hunters. Living about Lake Winnipeg, the Mound Builders 

 must have known of the Nelson River, leading directly to tide water 

 in Hudson's Bay, and of the gi-eat Saskatchewan flowing from the 

 Rocky Mountains with its northern feeders interlocking with those 

 of the Mackenzie. There is much food for thought and investigation 

 in all this, and the subject is well Avorthy of consideration as serving 



