84 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF NEW YORK. 



and archaeological questions involved in the ante-Columbian history of the con- 

 tinent. The resemblances vrhich they bear to the defensive structures of other 

 rude nations, in various parts of the world, are the result of natural causes, and 

 cannot be taken to indicate either a close or remote connection or dependence. 

 All primitive defences, being designed to resist common modes of attack, are essen- 

 tially the same in their principles, and seldom differ very much in their details. 

 The aboriginal hunter and the semi-civilized Aztec, selected precisely similar 

 positions for their fortresses, and defended them upon the same general plan ; yet 

 it would be palpably unsafe to found conclusions as to the relations of the respec- 

 tive builders, upon the narrow basis of these resemblances alone. 



