32 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



of such size would occur at so great a distance from mounds of the same 

 type and yet be surrounded by embankments belonging solely to the 

 region in which it is found. If they be considered the work of the 

 Mound Builders, as the term is used in this paper, then with Chillicothe, 

 in whose vicinity their principal settlements seem to have been located, 

 as a center, a radius of a little more than one hundred miles will include 

 nearly all the remains which appear to belong to this particular tribe, ex- 

 cept those in the vicinity of Charleston, West Virginia, and some mounds 

 on the upper Ohio. Outside of these limits, the size, appearance, interior 

 arrangement, and contents of the different mounds and enclosures com- 

 pel a belief that they are due to different peoples, or if to the same peo- 

 ple then to different periods. A similar statement may be made for 

 almost any portion of the country; namely, that no connected system or 

 definite form of aboriginal work of any nature, prevails over a scope of ter- 

 ritory much, if any, exceeding two hundred miles in linear extent. This 

 is a wide departure from the popular view, and may be too radical for 

 ready belief; but unless the general drift of archaeological discoveries is 

 very deceptive some such conclusion must be finally accepted. The no- 

 tion that all prehistoric remains in the eastern United States are the 

 work of a single race, is now thoroughly demolished; but it may be that 

 the reactionary idea which supposes a separate tribe for every observed 

 difference in such remains is equally erroneous. As in all other debat- 

 able questions, the truth will probably be found at last somewhere in the 

 middle ground avoided by disputants who seek the extreme in either 

 direction. 



(a.) SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MOUND BUILDERS. 



A primitive people must conform their habits to their surroundings; 

 with the ability to modify physical conditions to meet enlarged desires, 

 civilization begins. Under analogous circumstances races or tribes of a 

 like degree of culture, though unrelated, will attain similar ends by prac- 

 tically the same methods. It is not to be overlooked, however, that the 

 means must be adapted in large measure to the environment. A resem- 

 blance in certain typical forms is not absolute proof of identity or even 

 communication of the people to whom they belonged, but may mean only 

 that the social conditions were essentially alike. The discovery in mounds 

 of objects showing characteristic Indian handiwork does not, therefore, 

 signify that these mounds were built by known tribes, but is only an 

 indication that the Mound Builder had not, in this particular, advanced 

 beyond the Indian. Hence the value of specimens; in the absence of 

 written records or trustworthy traditions, the status of the Mound Build- 

 ers is to be learned only from a correct interpretation of their tangible 

 remains. 



With the notable exception of grooved axes, of which only two or 

 three have been unearthed, all the ordinary forms of so-called Indian 



