THE SCIENTIST. 
131 
lived in this region. 
N'ear Seltzertovvn, Mis^., there is a 
mound measuring 600 by 400 feet, cover- 
ing nearly six acres. It is built with 
reference to the cardinal points, the 
greatest length being East and West; it is 
40 feet high and is accessible by a graded 
way which leads to a platform of f^ur 
acres on the top. On this platform rise 
three conical mounds,oneat each end and 
one in the centre. This mound is sur- 
rounded by a ditch with an average 
depth of 10 feet. Numerous skeletons, 
vases filled with pigments, ornaments 
and ashes indicating burnt offerings have 
beeu found on exploring this mound. 
The north side is walled with sun burned 
Ijrick some of which show impressions of 
human hands. 
There have been found in various parts 
of the country from the Gulf to the 
Lakes, on examining mounds copper im- 
plements, images and ornament-^, some of 
them covered with silver, mica plates and 
shell ornam^its at such remote distances 
from the places where they are found 
native as to shovv an intimate relation 
between the people in different parts of 
the country. 
On the shores of Lake Superiorare evi- 
dences that at a very ancient date there 
lived people who showed considerable 
skill in mining copper. Samuel O. Knapp 
a former superintendent of the Mimie- 
sota Mining Co., discovered, in prospect- 
ing a trench 18 feet deep, in this, on rol- 
lers, resting on sleepers of oak, he found 
a mass of copper 10 feet long by 3 feet 
wide and 2 feet thick, weighing six tons. 
From numerous trenches and tunnels in 
this region, he has removed about ten 
cart loads of stone hammers and sledges. 
As an evidence of the age of these works 
he found a hemlock growing on a waste 
dump which showed on being cut down, 
395 annual rings of growth. 
Large plates of mica have been found 
in many of the mounds of Ohio and the 
West, and it was not until Prof. Kerr, 
State Geologist of North Carolina, dis- 
covered evidences of their works in the 
mica regions of that state, could it be 
imagined from where they came. 
There has been found in many of the 
mounds cloth of a rather coarse texture 
made from a fine quality of what appears 
to be hemp. They had several stylos of 
wearing and showed considerable skill in 
the manufacture , 
To close, we will make a brief summary. 
Aft to the originof this peopl3 we know 
nothing and evidences are not such that 
we can even conjecture. What became of 
them has been the subject of numerous 
and exhaustive papers with no definite 
conclusion. 
It is hardl.y reasonable to suppose that 
a people with fixed habitations and 
methodical pursuits, with a fair know- 
ledge of art, who manufactured a super- 
ior class of pottery and had a knowledge 
of working metals and the manufacture 
of cloth, who collected salt by evapora- 
tion and knew of its curative properties 
Avould degenerate into a race of people 
with wild nomadic habits, a fierce, cruel, 
warlike race, with no knowledge of these 
most useful industries, who spend their 
time hunt ing and fishing and spurn all 
attempts at civilizatior, who clothe them- 
selves in skins and cure their game by 
drying. 
It seems much more reasonable to imag- 
ine that these mound builders were driven 
from the countr3^'by a more warlike peo- 
ple, and finally drifted into Mexico and 
South America, where they developed 
that primitive civilization and know- 
ledge of art, until they became a nation, 
the remains of whose works even now 
call forth the wonder and admiration of 
the world — Ambler Harper. 
The rain makers should have success, as 
they have chosen the equinoxial period to 
experiment in. 
