658 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



We cut tlirou,<?h one of the embankments, and, turning a right angle, followed it up 

 along its center sufficiently to satisfy us that it contained no human remains. 



Who, then, were these northern mound-builders f This question must be answered 

 by those abler than I. I cannot refrain hazarding the opinion, however, that they 

 were an offshoot of the mound-builders whose larger wprks are seen as far north as 

 Northern Ohio at least ; that they deteriorated century after century in this barren 

 northern section, until they became the people their skulls show them to have finally 

 been ; and so poor that a flint-headed weapon, a shell necklace, and a stone for grind- 

 ing their food, Vrere all their starving, surviving relatives could afford them on their 

 sorrowful journey to the spirit laud. 



H. G. THOMAS, 

 Caj/iuin Ticcniteth Infardnj, Brcv. Brig. Gen. U. S. A. 



