624 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
In the opening chapters of the book, Dr. Foster gives an ad- 
mirable résumé of the evidences, in Europe and in the United 
States, of the antiquity of man; and follows these chapters 
with others on the geographical distribution of the works of the 
mound-builders ; shel.-banks (w. ich are as referable to Indians 
as to mound-builders) ; the construction of the mounds; the arts 
and manufactures of their builders, and also, on their copper- 
mining operations at Lake Superior. 
Succeeding these, is an exceedingly interesting chapter on the 
crania of the mound-builders, and then, after discussing manners 
and customs as the basis of ethnic relations, the author asks in 
chapter x, ‘* Who were the mound-builders ?” 
We have not the space to enter into a detailed analysis of the 
several chapters, briefly noticed above, although embracing 50 
many subjects that are of steadily increasing interest to American 
archeologists. As the main object of the work, however, is to 
solve the deep mystery of the origin and fate of the mound-build- 
ers, it is well that Dr. Foster’s own reply to these questions 
should be given. He writes, with reference to the first of these, 
“ Instead of seeking to establish ethnic relations between the 
mound-builders and any of the races of the Old World, founded on 
the apparent similarity of manners and customs, I would look 
rather for their origin to that race who, in times far remote, flour- 
ished in Brazil, some of whose crania are found in the bone-caves 
of Minas Geres, in connection with mammalian bones belonging 
to genera and species now extinct.” 
With reference to their ate, while occupants of the territory 
where their earthworks now are found, he remarks: “The dis- 
tinctive character of the mound-builders’ structures, and also the 
traditions which have been preserved, would indicate that this 
people were expelled from the Mississippi valley by a fierce and 
barbarous race, and that they found refuge in the more genial 
climate of Central America, where they developed those germs of 
civilization, originally planted in their northern homes, into 4 
_ perfection which has elicited the admiration of every modern ex- 
plorer.” i 
=- We have here two very clearly expressed ideas as to the origin 
of the mound-builders in North America, and of their departure 
therefrom. Dr. Foster does not believe, as we have seen, in an 
extra-American origin of this people; but seeks it rather in the 
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