'I’he ]^[atllpalists’ Companioii. 
“>V1ipres<»PTer tlie Katunilist lurns liis eye, life or (lie germ wf life lies spreail before him.”—Humboldt. 
35 Cents per 
Annum. 
CHARLES P. GUELF, 
EDITOR AND C. PUBLISHER. 
Single Copy, 
5 Cents. 
VOL. II. 
BROCKPORT, N. Y., AUGUST, 1886. 
NO. I. 
The Shell. 
Like a dawn in the midnight 
Rose from their sea-weed chamber the choir 
of the mystical sea-maids. 
Onward they came in their joy, and around 
them the lamps of the sea-nymphs, 
Crimson and azure and emerald, were bro¬ 
ken in star-showers lightning 
Far through the wine dark depths of the 
crystal, the gardens of Nereus, 
Coral, and sea fan, and tangle, the blooms, 
and the plains of the ocean. 
—Kingsley. 
Burial Mounds of Manitoba, 
Canada. 
BY PROF. CHAS. N. BELL, KINOSTON, ONT. 
EARCH has recently been made 
for the remains of the Moimd- 
Biiildeis in the Province of Manitoba, 
Canada. This Province is situated di- 
lectly north of Minnesota and Dakota. 
Investigation has revealed the presence 
ol several groups of burial mounds on 
the banks of the Red, Assiniboine, 
Pembina, and Souris rivers. Several of 
these mounds have been opened, and 
the articles found in them include hu¬ 
man and animal bones, stone scrapers, 
tubes, pipes and mauls^bone needles and 
fish spears, copper chisels, awls and or¬ 
naments, gorgets, beads, and other or¬ 
naments cut from marine shells, pottery, 
etc., which are identical in character 
with those catalogued in the National 
Museum of the United States, as recov¬ 
ered from the mounds of the Mississippi 
and Ohio valleys. The stiucture of the 
mounds already opened is the same as 
the ordinary burial description, though 
in one case there appeared to be an altar. 
There is a line of mounds from St. Paul, 
Minnesota, on the Mississippi River, up 
the Minnesota River, and down the Red 
River to Lake Winnipeg, 
Living at Lake Winnipeg, the Mound- 
Builders mu.st have known of the Nelson 
River emptying into the tide water of 
Hudson Bay, and of the great Saskat- 
chawan with its feeders interlocking 
with those of the Mackenzie, flowing 
into the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. 
Pottery has been found on both the Nel¬ 
son and Mackenzie, while none of the 
Indians living on those streams manu¬ 
factured it when the whites first came 
in contact with them. 
A careful comparison made between 
the moun.d form of burial and the scaf¬ 
fold and other forms practiced by the 
Indians of the Canadian North-west, as 
described by the French and English 
fur traders and adventurers who first en¬ 
tered the country, shows no similarity. 
The tribes have no traditions regarding 
these mounds, except in a few instances, 
and these have been i)roved absurd and 
without foundation. On the Rainy 
River, east of Manitoba, there is a 
mound of great size, measuring forty- 
five feet in height and .several hundred 
in circumference. 
