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tivated the soil like Egyptians, and had maize for their food, as the date and leek and onion supplied the wants of the laborers on the Nile. No Indian was ever known to toil in this manner. No government existed among the Indians that could bring them to such servitude. The authority of a chief or sachem is too slender a thread for such a people. It must be remembered that in Egypt to build one of the pyramids required the labor of 360,000 men for twenty years. This mound was visited by white men at a very early date, for, in 1818, one of the large trees growing on the mound bore the date of 1734, and several names cut in the bark were yet distinguishable. Tomlinson, the owner of the mound, was induced by his neighbors and friends in Wheeling to open the mound, which he did in 1838. From the north side he excavated toward the centre an adit 10 feet high and 7 feet wide along the natural surface. At the distance of 111 feet he came to a vault that had been excavated in the earth before the mound was commenced; 8 feet by 12 feet square and 7 feet in depth. Along each side, and across the ends, upright timbers had been placed, which supported timbers thrown across the vault as a ceiling. These timbers were covered with loose unhewn stone, common in the neighborhood. The timbers had rotted, and the stone tumbled into the vault. In this vault were two human

skeletons, one of which had no ornaments. The other was surrounded by 650 ivory beads and an ivory ornament about six inches long. A shaft was also sunk from the top of the mound to meet the other. At 34 feet above the first or bottom vault, was found another, similar to the first. In this vault was found a skeleton which had been ornamented with copper rings, plates of mica, and bone beads. Over 2,000 disks cut from shells were found here. The copper rings, or bracelets, found, weighed about 17 ounces.

North Carolina Mounds.

In 1880, about four miles from Wolf Creek, North Carolina, a mound eight feet high was found and opened. After digging to the surface of the earth on the edge, the investigators went through to the centre, and found a skeleton. After getting out 54 bones, including the skull and chest, they traced him out to get his length. He was, as nearly as could be determined, seven feet in length. From the appearance of his jaw-bone, he must have been a very large man. Nothing else was found except a small rock that had been broken, about three inches long, perfectly smooth, and with a small hole through it, which it is supposed was used for a pipe-stem. Around the skeleton was a row of burnt rock; under this ashes and fire-coals.

Mounds in Ohio.

OHIO MOUNDS.

While mounds are common through out the Mississippi Valley, Ohio is most prolific in these remains. It has been estimated that over 10,000 mounds have been found and over 500 examined in the district between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. On Kelley's Island in Lake Erie, not far from Toledo, are many evidences of a prehistoric people and numerous mounds are to be found there. The serpent mound near Peeble's Station, Adams County, Ohio, is one of the most unique and interesting relics of the mound builders. It is an earthen structure in the form of an immense serpent, some 1,300 feet in length. Near Canal Winchester, Ohio, in a large mound was found a collection which consisted of 54 copper pieces representing button-shaped ornaments, celts, large plates, and bracelets. All had been hammered together evidently to destroy their identity. Some of the plates if straightened out would measure eight and one-half inches long and four inches wide. With the copper pieces were found five broken pieces of slate ornaments and 34 pieces of galenite, and over all were placed quantities of mica in sheets, and all were found one foot below the surface and placed within the space of 18 inches by 24 inches. The Butcher Mound, so called from W. C. Butcher, is located near Homer, Ohio, on the Licking the Licking River. It is 500 yards from the river,

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upon a level plateau, 15 feet above the river bed. On the north side of the mound is a large walnut stump, three feet nine inches in diameter. Large maple trees are growing upon the mound, the largest being 18 inches in diameter. The top of the mound is perfectly flat, forming a platform having an area of more than 1,600 square feet. The mound is 13 feet high and 135 feet in diameter north and south, and 126 feet in diameter east and west. In this mound was found a skeleton, that of an adult, buried one foot below the surface and covered with 96 small granite boulders averaging five inches in diameter. The skeleton was badly decayed and only a few pieces of ribs and vertebræ could be saved. The evidence obtained from the exploration of this mound is sufficient to justify the conclusion that the mound was built for burial purposes, and in some religious ceremony the body or bodies were cremated in the large fire-pit in the centre of the mound. In a swamp near Copley, Summit County, Ohio, is a large mound 200 feet wide, surrounded by a ditch 13 feet across. This has been named Fort Island. Similar ancient earth forts, with exterior ditches, are often seen in Ohio, occupying the crown of a hill. By flooding the swamp this would become an island, equally accessible, as a precipitous hill. The race of ancient earth builders thoroughly appreciated the military advantages of posi

tion. In Florida the Spaniards found Indian stockades surrounded by running water. Champlain found similar works among the Iroquois in 1513, which he attacked in the Valley of the Onondaga.

Deductions.

The Mound Builders were not one nation, or even one community, but comprehended many different tribes, each of which had its own territory. There was not a dense population except in certain very limited areas. Their towns were no larger than many Indian settlements in the Eighteenth century. Large tracts were practically unoccupied. They lived like Indians. They had no alphabet. They could not build a stone wall that would stand without support. They had no beast of burden, no domestic animal except the dog. They never walled up a spring. They had not the potter's wheel. Cement or mortar was unknown. They had no corn mill as serviceable as a Mexican metate. They could not work any metal except as a stone to be rubbed, chipped, or beaten into desired forms. Their agricultural implements were of stone, shell, bone, and wood. Their most efficient cutting instrument was a flint. Tools, implements, and ornaments were laboriously chipped, or rubbed into form with gritty stones. Their pottery was inferior to that from the Pueblo region. Their flint work was not equal to that of the latter-day Northwest Indians or in

the stone graves of Tennessee. Their shell work was behind that from Indian graves along the eastern coast. In pipes alone did they excel, and this only in a special locality. In symmetry and finish, relics from mounds do not surpass similar, unweathered, objects from the surface or from modern graves and village-sites. Earthworks were built by gathering material at convenient spots in baskets or skins holding about half a cubic foot, and dumping it where needed. A mound 20 feet high and 100 feet in diameter could be built in 20 days by 100 men, each carrying one cubic yard a day. Mound building evidently extended through many centuries. Small tumuli around the Great Lakes contain articles procured from whites, some of them quite recently. De Soto found heavy embankments surrounding " very high mounds," some of them "large enough to give room for twenty houses" on the top, all erected by the natives then living on them. On the other hand, not one of the large mounds of the Ohio valley has yielded any European object not intrusive. Weight of evidence warrants the assertion that prehistoric builders of northern mounds were American Indians of the same status as the agricultural Indians of the Gulf States who built mounds less than four centuries ago. They were more advanced than the roving hunting tribes er countered by pioneer whites.

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