OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 25 



out Ohio, as well as those in the Mississippi valley, various articles 

 have been discovered, showing a spirit of commercial enterprise. 

 These articles are placed in such positions as to put beyond doubt 

 man's agency. 



In the valleys of the Scioto, Ohio and Mississippi, there are 

 numerous artificial constructions known by the name of mounds, and 

 their builders have received the name of the Moundbuilders. Ac- 

 cording to Schoolcraft, the moundbuilders were the ancient Alle- 

 ghanians, the oldest tribe in the United States, of which the tradition 

 is distinct. This tribe had the seat of its power in the Ohio valley 

 and its confluents, at a very ancient date. Here they had numerous 

 towns and villages, and to this district they brought various articles 

 which the archaeologist now finds in the course of his explorations, 

 and which we may safely assume as evidences of there having existed 

 a commercial spirit amongst these people. 



These mounds are of three distinct classes, each differing from 

 the other, and apparently used by the original owners for different 

 purposes. First, there is a class of mound known as the emblematic 

 mound, designed to represent the armorial bearings of the builders- 

 Second, the sacrificial mound, and third, the burial mound In the 

 sacrificial mound or altar, the construction appears to be different 

 from the others. The special features of their erection are, they are 

 built of alternate layers of gravel, mould, sand and slices of mica. 

 They usually cover an altar of stone or baked clay, hollowed into the 

 shape of a basin. In this hollow the offerings were placed. 



Now let us see what kind of offerings were made : obsidian 

 knives, thin slices of mica cut into various shapes and perforated for 

 stringing, necklaces of beads, pierced teeth and of silver, earrings and 

 armlets of bloodstone, lances and arrowheads of quartz, obsidian 

 flint and manganesian garnet, articles of copper, bone and ivory, 

 conch and other shells, Pipes are plentiful in these mounds and of 

 various kinds, some of the brown pipestone of the Chippewa river, 

 and others of the blood red pipestone of the Coteau des prairies. 



We have already seen that the obsidian must have been brought 

 a distance of at least 1300 English miles. Mica is not found in 

 in Ohio. The only places known to produce mica in North America 

 are New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. A species of mica is 



