802 Wisconsin Academy of /Scieiices, Arts, and Letters. 



in the miJst of the earthworks of this region, are the ruins of 

 their habitations. By comparing these with others, which have 

 been described by history, we shall be able to see that they rep- 

 resent a very different stage of development from the earthworks 

 with which they are associated. We do not deny that some of 

 the Indian tribes reached a high stage of development and at- 

 tained to considerable architectural skill, but there seemed to be 

 a great difference between their works, at their best, and the 

 works of the Mound Builders, both in style and finish, and other 

 peculiarities. 



The Mound Builders may possibly have used stockades, and 

 naade their earth walls serve the purposes of parapets, and so their 

 works would be only a development of this. Yet, even then we 

 must ascribe different grades of architecture to the two classes of 

 works. The material used is certainly different, and the style is 

 different. The Iroquois built perpendicular structures, without 

 any platforms, and depended upon the strength of timber for de- 

 fense. The Mound Builders built their structures in the pyramidal 

 style, and depended upon the strength of their earth- walls both 

 for defenses and observatories. 



The Cliff Dwellers and the Puebloes had a still different mode 

 of defense. They erected perpendicular walls, but built in ter- 

 races, and depended upon adobe or stone as the material which 

 should resist attack. Where they did not build in terraces, they 

 put their houses into the niches of the rocks, and depended upon 

 the Cliffs for protection. 



That the ordinary Indian had a different grade of architecture 

 from the Mound Builders or the Puebloes, is evident, also, from 

 other circumstances. 



II. We now turn to the works of the Mound Builders. I think 

 we shall find among them, an entirely different grade of architect- 

 ure and a different mode of life. We are not now considering 

 the question whether the Mound Builders were Ked Indians, or 

 not, but whether their mode of life, their social status and their 

 architectural skill were not all diff'erent from those with which 

 we are familiar, as belonging to the Indian tribes. One of the 

 first things whicn impresses us in this connection is the difference 



