PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 391 



thinks was not more than looo years ago. "The coming of this 

 creature coincided with the change of these peoples to a more- 

 barbarous condition. This plenitude of meat appears to have 

 had a debasing effect on all the people of the Ohio Valley. They 

 no longer tilled as much ; their settlements, with their mounds, 

 and forts, were abandoned as far as this epoch-making beast 

 extended his march. The Indians of the south, where the dense 

 forests and the swamp-margined streams presented a barrier to 

 the migration of the buffalo, remained principally soil-tillers as 

 did the Indians of New York, while other western tribes became 

 nomadic." This inference was partly dependent upon the sup- 

 position that the remains of the buffalo had not been found in 

 any of the mounds. Evidence, however, has accumulated since,, 

 showing that buffalo bones have been found, though rarely, in 

 some of the mounds. Professor Putnam speaks of a "pendant 

 made of buffalo horn" found on an altar in the Turner mounds, 

 explored by him in the valley of the Little Miami. 



Limitations to the age of some of the most extensive pre- 

 historic earthworks are pretty clearly set by the small amount 

 of erosion which has occurred since their construction. This- 

 can be seen to best effect in Fort Ancient, in Warren County, 

 where the fortification for a long distance follows the exposed 

 edge of a promontory which at two or three places is cut intO' 

 by small streams of water which conduct the drainage from the 

 inclosed plateau into the surrounding depression of the river 

 valley. A thousand years would seem to be more than ample 

 for the actual erosion, across the earthworks accomplished by 

 these streams. Thus does geology come in as an important fac- 

 tor in estimating the age of these prehistoric remains. 



As to the ethnographic relations of the mound builders- 

 evidence enough seems to have been accumulated to prove that 

 they belonged to the tribes which occupied the southern part 

 of North America, which are brachycephalic or short headed,, 

 whereas the Indians of the northern part of North America are 

 dolycocephalic or longheaded. Out of 1400 skulls found at 

 Madisonville by Professor Putnam's colaborers more than 1200- 

 were brachycephalic but in some of the burial places both 



