14 



MOUND REGIONS. 



The mounds have long been known as occurring in Central 

 America, in Mexico, and along the whole extent of the Mis- 

 sissippi valley from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes. Our 

 Northwest has, however, been neglected in the accounts of the 

 mound-bearing region. Along our Red River I can count 

 some six or eight mounds that have been noted in late years, 

 and from the banks having been peopled and cultivated I have 

 little doubt that others have been obliterated. One formerly 

 stood on the site of the imposing Fort Garry Court 

 in this city. The larger number of those known are in the 

 neighborhood of the rapids, 16 or 18 miles below Winnipeg, 

 where the fishing is good. In 1879 the Historical Society 

 opened one of these, and obtained a considerable quantity of 

 remains. It is reported that there are mounds also on Nettley 

 Creek, a tributary of the lower Red River, also on Lake Mani- 

 toba and some of its affluents. During the past summer it was 

 my good fortune to visit the Rainy River, which lies some half 

 way of the distance from Winnipeg to Lake Superior. In that 

 delightful stretch of country, extending for 90 miles along the 

 river there are no less than 21 mounds. These I identify with 

 the mounds of Red River. The communication between Red 

 and Rainy Rivers is effected by ascending the Red Lake River, 

 and coming by portage to a river running from the south into 

 Rainy River. Both Red and Rainy River easily connect with 

 the head waters of the Mississippi. Our region then may be 

 regarded as a self-contained district including the most north- 

 erly settlements of the strange race who built the mounds. I 

 shall try to connect them with other branches of the same stock 

 lying further to the east and south. For convenience I shall 

 speak of the extinct people who inhabited our special region 

 as the Takawgamis, or farthest north Mound Builders. 



MOUND VARIETIES. 



The thirty or forty mounds discovered up to this time in 

 this region of the Takawgamis have, so far as examined, a 

 uniform structure. Where stone could be obtained there is 

 found below the surface of the ground a triple layer of flat 

 limestone blocks, placed in an imbricated manner over the re- 

 mains interred. In one mound, at the point where the Rainy 

 Lake enters the Rainy River, there is a mound situated at 

 Coutche tcheng near Fort Frances, in which there was found 

 on excavation, a structure of logs some 10 feet square, and 



