PRE-HISTORIC YANKEES. 651 
even to the boreal latitudes drained by the Yukon and the littoral parts of west- 
ern Alaska. 
From Vancouver's Island, spreading eastward to the mountains and converg- 
ing along the rivers toward the most accessible passes, the Mound-builders de- 
bouched from the mountains into the great central basin at various points, desig- 
nated by their relics, from the 50th to the 53d parallel. Of this horde there 
seems to have been two streams; one pursuing to its mouth the Saskatchewan 
River, passing southward along Lake Winnipeg to the Red River of the North 
and ascending that stream into the present Minnesota and Dakota; the other 
descending the sources of the Missouri and converging its scattered detachments 
upon that mighty flood. It is quite possible that this stream of migration divided 
at the foot of the mountains and that a portion followed south the chains and 
spurs of the Rocky Mountains as the others followed the streams. The monu- 
ments of this mountain people, changing with their changed habitat, have been 
traced through Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, the Mexican State of 
Chihuahua and onward to the great table-land, the tierra templada, of Mexico. 
Following the course of the Missouri and leaving remains in every fertile 
and well-watered region contiguous to its course, the Mound-builders paused at 
nearly every point where modern commerce has established its depots, and left 
profuse monuments to testify of their sagacity. From Omaha to St. Louis an almost 
unbroken line of mounds follows the river and, where the Mound City is now 
seated and stretches forth the arms of commerce into all parts of the continent, 
the Mound-builder established one of the centres of his empire. 
In the meanwhile, the detachments which had crossed to the Red River 
pursued their eastward course no farther. In Canada no traces of the Mound- 
builders exist. Turning their faces southward they passed the boundaries of the 
present United States, advanced around the great lakes as far as New York and 
descended the Mississippi until they met, as foemen or as friends, the ancient 
citizens of St. Louis. From thence they occupied every tributary of the Father 
of waters. On the Illinois, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Arkansas, their monu- 
ments challenge wonder and admiration; nor did their wanderings cease till they 
had penetrated east and south as far as the Alleghany Mountains and the Mex- 
ican Gulf, crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico and even reached through the 
inviting savannahs of Georgia and Florida, the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. 
It is now proper to describe in a rapid way the antiquities from whose testi- 
mony the foregoing itinerary has been deduced. But it should be premised that 
mounds and earthworks are not peculiar to this continent. All over the world, 
among the relics of pre-historic times, fortifications, dykes, tumuli and cairns form 
conspicuous elements. In the British Isles the smaller mounds are common 
features of the landscape. From the shores of the Atlantic to the Ural Moun- 
tains they have been found in great abundance, and in Asia they are scattered 
over the great steppes from the Russian frontier to the Pacific Ocean as far 
North as Behring's Strait and from Siberia to India. Even in Africa they are 
not wanting. Most of these are small in size, but among many similar works 
