ISOi Wisconsiti Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



were certainly less war-like than the savage tribes of the north, 

 whom La Salle and Hennepin afterward visited. Whether they 

 were the builders of the works now existing, or were occupying 

 the works of another people who preceded them, they were in the 

 agricultural state. Tbe massiveness of the pyramids or platforms 

 of earth, found throughout this region, show that a sedentary 

 people, who had long followed the peaceful pursuit of agricul- 

 ture, and who had reached a high degree of architectural skill, 

 had lived here. And so, throughout the whole valley of the 

 Mississippi the evidences are accumulating that there was a stage 

 of society, once existing here, quite different from that which ever 

 prevailed among the savage tribes. 



These savage tribes did indeed follow the agricultural life to 

 a certain extent, and some of them reached a high state of devel- 

 opment. The history of the Iroquois confederacy records the 

 facts that there was not only a high stale of political and social 

 life among them, but that agriculture and architecture also 

 reached some degree of development ; but the description of their 

 works by history, aud especially as seeo in the fragmentary ruins 

 left by them, would indicate that the Mound Builders were far in 

 advance in all these respects. If we can look at the amount of 

 toil necessary to erect the great earthworks which are scattered 

 over the country, we must ascribe to the Mound Builders an in- 

 dustry which never existed among the later Indians. It is said 

 that the Mound of Cahokia covered an area of six acres, and its 

 solid contents have been estimated at 20,000,000 cubic feet. It 

 was 705 feet in length and the same in width, and rose to a height 

 of 90 feet. It was built in two stories, the lower terrace having 

 a breadth of 160 feet and length of 300 feet, and the upper ter- 

 race or summit affording a platform of 200 by 450 feet. [The 

 Great Pyramid of Ghizeh is only 720 feet square, but has a height 

 of 450 feet.] This is only one of sixty similar mounds which 

 are found in the same locality. The great mound at Miamisburg 

 is 68 feet in height and 852 feet in circumference, and contains 

 811.353 cubic feet. It is said that the mound was built as an 

 observatory and overlooks the Big Twin river. It is situated on 

 • a hill just east of the Great Miami, and not only commands a 



