24. INDIAN HISTORY. 
the Indians, evidently, had his head crushed by a blow ; the other 
had a hole cut through the base of the brain, and the squaw had 
been scalped, the skin hanging in wrinkled folds over her brow, 
while a tomahawk wound, causing a deep gash in her forehead, 
just above the right eye, had no doubt caused her death. 
The different expressions in the countenances of these figures, 
were finely delineated, and as distinctly portrayed, as if done 
on canvass by a good artist. The eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, lips, 
teeth and chin, were formed by the natural growth of the wood, 
standing out in bold relief, and by no theory has it ever been satis- 
factorily explained, how these likenesses have been produced on 
the living tree. This curiosity is still in the possession of a citizen 
of Green Bay, who found it growing in the woods, about 10 miles 
from the city, and who takes pleasure in showing it to visitors. 
Over the whole continent of North America, we have evident 
proof of there once having been a very numerous and powerful 
people. They are found scattered over the different parts of the 
country, from the ice bound regions of the Arctic Sea and Coast of 
Labrador, to the sunny shores of Florida and the Pacific Ocean, 
and although divided into many tribes, differing from each other 
in many respects, they are nearly all of the same color, have sim- 
ilar superstitions, and essentially belong to one great family. The 
extensive Indian mounds found in Wisconsin, and other parts of 
the United States, show that a great number of people must have 
been engaged for many years in their construction. But this once 
numerous family appear from some evolution in nature, to be 
passing rapidly away. 
When Nova Scotia was first discovered, it was inhabited by a 
tribe of Indians, of mild and pacific deportment, known to the 
whites as the red Indians, on account of their particularly red color. 
The tribe then numbered several thousands, but is now totally 
extinct. 
The Indians have many superstitions. One that exists among 
the Lake Superior Indians, in connection with an Island, known 
as the Manitou, probably had its origin in the mirage which often 
occurs during spring and fall, when this island appears to be eleva- 
ted much above its natural position, and again to be submerged be- 
neath the surface of the lake. This phenomena takes place near- 
