48 British Association for the Advancement of Sdeiice. 



Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. They consist of regular lines, 

 having considerable elevations and great extent, of mounds or 

 pyramidal eminences, and of spacious platforms of earth. These 

 different works were adapted for fortifications, for places of wor- 

 ship, and for cemeteries. Within the last two years, reports, he 

 said, had reached the Atlantic States of very extensive remains 

 of structures indicating the existence of one or more considerable 

 cities in the territory of Ouisconsin, formerly a northwest terri- 

 tory of the United States. The antiquity of some of the numer- 

 ous works alluded to was great ; there are circumstances which 

 led him to refer them to a period 800 or a 1000 years back. The 

 circular and pyramidal eminences seem to have been destined for 

 two purposes : for places of worship and for cemeteries. Some 

 of them contain immense heaps of bones, thrown together, pro- 

 miscuously, as after a bloody battle ; in others the bodies are reg- 

 ularly arranged, and in some there are only one or two bodies : 

 the bones in the last are usually accompanied by silver and cop- 

 per ornaments, some of which are extremely well wrought. The 

 crania found in these mounds diifer from those of the existing 

 Indians, from the Caucasian or European, and m fact from all ex- 

 isting nations so far as they are known. The forehead is broader 

 and more elevated than in the North American Indian, less broad 

 and elevated than in the European ; .the orbits are small and reg- 

 ular. The jaws sensibly prominent, less so indeed than in the 

 Indian, more so than in the European. The palatine arch is of a 

 rounded form, and its fossa less extensive than in the Indian or 

 African, more than in the European, owing principally to a greater 

 breadth of the palatine plate of the os palati. But the most re- 

 markable appearance in these heads is an irregular flatness on 

 the occipital region, evidently produced by artificial means. 

 These peculiarities, with others more minute, give a character to 

 , these skulls not found in any living nations. Dr. Warren also 

 stated that he had received other crania, which at first view he 

 believed to be of the same race and nation, for they resembled 

 them in all their peculiarities, more nearly than one Caucasian 

 head resembles another ; and he exhibited drawings and a cast 

 in proof of the exactness of this resemblance ; but these latter, 

 he observed, were species of ancient Peruvian heads. Now the 

 cemeteries of the ancient Peruvians are distant from the Ohio 

 mounds more than 1500 miles, yet the facts stated above render- 



