may thus speak of a race now extinct ; if this be so, perhaps 

 of a people unconnected with the present Indian population 

 of the continent ; perhaps of a people of greater civilization 

 than the present race, who had found their way from that 

 seed-bed of the nations of Europe — its north-west coast. 



In October, 1879, the officers and members of the Histor- 

 ical Society of Manitoba entered upon the work of examining 

 the mound, to which reference has been made. It is worthy 

 of note that a certain amount of superstition tills the minds 

 of the Indians and half-bloods in the neighborhood of these 

 mounds, as to any disturbance of them, a proof that they re- 

 gard them as burial-mounds. In the case of one of the mounds 

 mentioned, a native intending to erect a small farm-building 

 upon it, having excavated a cellar, came upon human bones 

 in doing so, when he religiously re-interred them, and erected 

 his building elsewhere. Before opening the present mound, 

 the native owners of the property were consulted, and con- 

 sented somewhat unwillingly, one in giving his consent saying 

 he did not think it right to open it all. 



Members of the Society gathered from some of the old 

 native women living in the vicinity 



THE LEGEND OF THE MOUND. 



" Many years ago," said one of the old women born about 

 the beginning of the century, " her people told her their tribe 

 was living at Netley Creek (a creek running into Lake Win- 

 nipeg), and the mound* was inhabited by people calling them- 

 selves ' Mandrills.' They were cave-dwellers, and belonged 

 to a race then very few in number. They had been visited by 

 one of her tribe, and were found to be dying with small-pox ; 

 the Indian was alarmed, dreading the scourge of the red man, 

 and avoiding the place went over to the east side of the river, 

 on his hunt for several days, and skirted along the small 

 streams running into Red River from the east. On his return 

 he passed the mound dwelling, when he found that it had 

 fallen in and there was no trace of a Mandrill left. The In- 

 dians had never known any of this race in the country since." 



This is plainly an unsophisticated story, and as we shall see 

 afterwards is a strange misinterpretation of a few simple facts. 

 The Society having procured the assistance of a strong force 

 of excavators, went carefully to work to make a thorough ex- 

 amination. The mound, at one time a short distance from the 

 bank of the river, has now, by the falling in of the soft alluvial 

 soil of which the bank is composed, only about half the super- 



