K^ISrS^^S CITY 
Review of Science and Industry, 
A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 
SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 
VOL. VIL MARCH, 1884. NO. n. 
ARCHAEOLOGY. 
PRE-HISTORIC YANKEES. 1 
WARREN WATSON, KANSAS CITY, MO. 
When the white man first set foot on the American shores, he found evi- 
dences that civihzation had not been confined to the old world. Not only was 
he confronted by existing phases of native culture which justly aroused surprise, 
curiosity and admiration, but he was also shown the hoary monuments of races, 
who in a remote and forgotten antiquity, had flourished for a period, rose to an 
elevated pitch of power, culture and prosperity, then disappeared so completely 
that nothing remained to testify of their existence, or their history, save the 
dumb relics of their art and industry and the unintelligible voice of tradition. 
Among these ancient races, none have excited more attention, or more contro- 
versy, than the people we have been accustomed to call the Mound-builders. 
Upon examining a map of North America, it will be observed that the great 
central basin, known as the Mississippi Valley, is penetrated from the northwest 
by innumerable streams, which, gradually mingling their currents, form at length 
the mighty flood which bends its course beside this prosperous city. Near the 
sources of the most northern of these confluents of the Missouri are the fountains 
of three other fluvial systems which pour their various streams into the Arctic, 
the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. Of these the least important to our theme 
are the streams which flow northward to Great Slave Lake and empty, through 
1. Read before the Kansas City Academy of Science, February 29, 1884. 
VII— 41 
