VII 
THE ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF MAN 
427 
mounds exist in vast numbers, and their partial exploration 
has yielded a quantity of articles and works of art which 
throw some further light on the peculiarities of this mysteri- 
ous people. Most of these mounds contain a large concave 
hearth or basin of burnt clay, of perfectly symmetrical form, 
on which are found deposited more or less abundant relics, 
all bearing traces of the action of fire. We are therefore only 
acquainted with such articles as are practically fire-proof, or 
have accidentally escaped combustion. These consist of bone 
and copper implements and ornaments, disks and tubes ; 
pearl, shell, and silver beads, more or less injured by the fire ; 
ornaments cut in mica; ornamental pottery; and numbers 
of elaborate carvings in stone, mostly forming pipes for 
smoking . 1 The metallic articles are all formed by hammer- 
ing, but the execution is very good; plates of mica are 
found cut into scrolls and circles ; the pottery, of which 
very few remains have been found, is far superior to that 
of any of the Indian tribes, since Dr. Wilson is of opinion 
that it must have been formed on a wheel, as it is often of 
uniform thickness throughout (sometimes not more than one- 
sixth of an inch), polished, and ornamented with scrolls and 
figures of birds and flowers in delicate relief. But the most 
instructive objects are the sculptured stone pipes, representing 
not only various easily recognisable animals, but also human 
heads, so well executed that they appear to be portraits. 
Among the animals, not only are such native forms as the 
panther, bear, otter, wolf, beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, 
frog, rattlesnake, and many others well represented, but also 
the manatee, which perhaps then ascended the Mississippi as 
it now does the Amazon, and the toucan, which could hardly 
have been obtained nearer than Mexico. The sculptured 
heads are especially remarkable, because they present to us 
the features of an intellectual and civilised people. The nose 
in some is perfectly straight, and neither prominent nor 
dilated ; the mouth is small, and the lips thin ; the chin and 
upper lip are short, contrasting with the ponderous jaw of 
the modern Indian, while the cheek-bones present no marked 
1 Woven clotli, apparently of flax or hemp, as well as gauges supposed to 
have been used to regulate the thickness of the thread, have also been found 
in several of the mounds of Ohio (Foster’s Prehistoric Races of the United 
States, 1873, pp. 225-229}. 
