CHAPTER II.

A

THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Builders.

FTER the last mammoth was slain, it is possible Moundthat many centuries may have passed before the Mound-Builders came to occupy the soil where these animals had been. The Mound-Builders were a race of men who never saw the mammoth, we may be very sure; or else they would have carved or painted its likeness, as they did those of the birds and beasts they knew. But, though they made pictures of these creatures, they unfortunately did not make equally distinct pictures of themselves; so

that we do not know what they looked like; and, as they wrote no books, we do not know what language they spoke. All that we know of them is from the wonderful works of industry and skill that they left behind, and especially from certain great mounds of earth they built. It is from these great works that they derive their name.

THE SERPENT MOUND.

One of the most remarkable of these mounds is to

The Serpent mound.

Other mounds

and their uses.

Where other mounds

are.

be seen in Adams County, Ohio. It represents an immense snake a thousand feet long, and five feet thick, lying along a bluff that rises above a stream. There you can trace all the curves and outlines of the snake, ending in a tail with a triple coil. In the open mouth, something in the shape of an egg seems to be held; and this egg-shaped mound is one hundred and sixty feet long. This shows on what a vast scale these earth-works are made. Sometimes they are shaped like animals, sometimes like men. In some places there are fortifications, often enclosing one or two acres of ground, and in some cases four hundred acres. Sometimes these earth-works have from fourteen to sixteen miles of embankment. In other places there are many small mounds arranged in a straight line, at distances nearly equal, and extending for many miles. These are supposed to have been used for sending signals from station to station across the country. Then, in other places, there are single mounds, sometimes sixty feet high, or even ninety, with steps cut in the earth upon one side, leading up to the top, which is flat, and sometimes includes from one to five acres of ground.

These mounds are scattered all down the valley of the Mississippi, and along many of its tributary streams. There are thousands of them, large or small, within the single State of Ohio. They are not made of earth alone, for some of them show brick-work and stone-work here and there, though earth is always the chief material. Some of them have chambers within, and the remains of wooden walls; and sometimes charred wood is found on top, as if fires had been kindled there. This

Central

fact is very important, as it helps us to understand the purpose of the higher mounds; for in Central America Mounds in there are similar mounds, except that those have on America. their tops the remains of stone temples and palaces. So

it is supposed that the higher mounds of the Mississippi Valley may have been built for purposes of worship;

and that, although their summits are now bare, yet the charred wood may be the remains of sacrificial fires, or of wooden temples that were burned long ago.

It is certain that these Mound-Builders were in some Engineering skill. ways well advanced in civilization. All their earthworks show more or less of engineering skill. They

Shape of the

mounds.

vary greatly in shape: they show the square, the circle, the octagon, the ellipse; and sometimes all these figures are combined in one series of works. But the circle is always a true circle, and the square a true square; and, moreover, there are many squares that measure exactly one thousand and eighty feet on a side, and this shows that the Mound-Builders had some definite standard of measurement.

Contents of

mounds.

There have been found in these mounds many tools and crnaments, made of copper, silver, and valuable There are axes, chisels, knives, bracelets, and beads; there are pieces of thread and of cloth; and

stones.

gracefully ornamented vases of pottery. The MoundBuilders knew how to model in clay a variety of objects, such as birds, quadrupeds,

mals to help them. They had neither horses nor oxen
nor carts; so that all the vast amount of earth required
for these mounds must have been carried in baskets
or skins; and this shows
that their population
must have been very nu-
merous, or they never
could have attempted so
much. They mined for
copper near Lake Supe-
rior, where their deserted
mines may still be seen.
In one of these mines
there is a mass of copper

ANCIENT MINING SHAFT.

Population.

weighing nearly six tons, partly raised from the bottom, copper and supported on wooden logs, now nearly decayed.

mining.