AvucGustT 25, 1899. ] 
the ordinary conical mounds. Such are 
the Newark, Liberty, Highbank and Ma- 
rietta groups of earthworks, the Turner 
group, the Clark or Hopewell group, and 
many others in Ohio and in the regions 
generally south and west of these great cen- 
tral settlements; also the Cahokia Mound 
opposite St. Louis, the Serpent Mound of 
Adams County, the great embankments 
known as Fort Ancient which you are to 
visit within a few days, the truly wonder- 
ful work of stone known as Fort Hill in 
Highland County, and the strange and 
puzzling walls of stone and cinder near Fos- 
ter’s Station. 
So far as these older earthworks have 
been carefully investigated, they have proved 
to be of very considerable antiquity. This 
is shown by the formation of a foot or more 
of vegetable humus upon their steep sides, 
by the forest growth upon them which is 
often of primeval character, and by the 
probability that many of these works, cov- 
ering hundreds of acres, were planned and 
built upon the river terraces before the 
growth of the virgin forest. 
If all mounds of shell, earth or stone, 
fortifications on hills, or places of religious 
and ceremonial rites, are classed irrespec- 
tive of their strueture, contents, or time of 
formation, as the work of one people, and 
that people is designated ‘the American 
Indian’ or the ‘American Race,’ and con- 
sidered to be the only people ever inhabit- 
ing America, North and South, we are 
simply repeating what was done by Morton 
‘in relation to the crania of America—not 
giving fair consideration to differences while 
overestimating resemblances. The effort 
to affirm that all the various peoples of 
America are of one race has this very year 
come up anew in the proposition to provide 
‘a name which shall be brief and expres- 
sive’ and at the same time shall fasten 
‘upon us the theory of unity—notwithstand- 
ing the facts show diversity—of race. 
SCIENCE. 233 
Let us now return to the builders of the 
older earthworks, and consider the possi- 
bility of their having been an offshoot of 
the ancient Mexicans. Of the crania from 
the most ancient earthworks we as yet 
know so little that we can only say that 
their affinities are with the Toltecan type; 
but of the character of the art, and par- 
ticularly the symbolism expressing the 
religious thought of the people, we can find 
the meaning only by turning to ancient 
Mexico. What Northern or Eastern Indian 
ever made or can understand the meaning 
of such sculptures or such incised designs 
as have been found in several of the ancient 
ceremonial mounds connected with the 
great earthworks? What Indian tribe 
has ever made similar carved designs on 
human and other bones, or such singular 
figures, cut out of copper and mica, as were 
found in the Turner and Hopewell groups ? 
Or such symbolic animal forms, elaborately 
carved in stone, and such perfect terra 
cotta figures of men and women as were 
found on the sacrificial altars of the Turner 
group? What meaning can be given to the 
Cincinnati Tablet, or to the designs on cop- 
per plates and shell discs from some of the 
Southern and Western burialand ceremonial 
mounds? I think we shall search in vain 
for the meaning of these many objects in 
the North or East, or for much that resem- 
bles them in the burial places of those re- 
gions. On the other hand, most of these 
become intelligible when we compare the 
designs and symbols with those of the 
ancient Mexican and Central American 
peoples. The Cincinnati Tablet, which has 
been under discussion for over half a cen- 
tury can be interpreted and its dual serpent 
‘characters understood by comparing it with 
the great double image known in Mexico as 
the Goddess of Death and the God of War. 
The elaborately complicated designs on 
copper plates, on shell discs, on human 
bones and on the wing bones of the eagle 
