Howling and stalking, like a shadow momently
diminishing, he walked to and fro in this way for
many days. Hunger hourly extended its mastery
through his immense frame. At about mid-day
in the third week of his imprisonment, he cast
his eye upon the cavernous and now dusty opening
through which the river that watered the
plain had been accustomed to find its way. It was
broad and open and of considerable height. Into
this Behemoth now turned his steps. Its mouth
was larger than the inner passage, for time and
tempest had worn away the rocks which once
guarded it.

As he advanced it diminished, and ere his
whole bulk had entered the channel, it became
so narrow and confined that he was forced to sink
on his knees, in order to make further progress.
This labor soon proved vexatious and toilsome,
and the Mastodon, willing to force a way where
one was not to be found, or to perish in the endeavor,
raised himself slowly toward an upright
position.

The remnant of his strength proved to be fearful,
for, as his broad shoulders pressed upon the
rocks above him, the incumbent mountain trembled,
and when he had attained his full stature by

[figure description] Page 126.[end figure description]

a last powerful effort, the impending rocks rolled
back and forth, and fell with a resounding crash
and in great fragments to the earth. The whole
cone of the mountain had been loosened from its
base, and leaning for a moment, like a lurid cloud,
in mid-air, fell into the plain with terrible ruin,
bearing down a whole forest of trees and the
earth in which they had taken root.

Fortunately for Behemoth—unfortunately for
the object of the Mound-builders—the rocks
which immediately over-hung Behemoth, though
rent in several places, did not give way, but so interlocked
and pressed against each other as to
form a solid arch over his head and leave him unharmed
amid the ruins. Passage through the
channel was, however, wholly arrested by the
large masses of earth that had fallen into it, and
Behemoth finding it vain to attempt to pass
farther onward, withdrew.

The fatal time drew nearer and nearer. Hundreds
and thousands of the Mound-builders gathered
from every quarter of the Empire to look
upon the last hour of the mighty Creature which
lay extended, in his whole vast length, in the plain.
A catastrophe and show like that was not to be
foregone, for it might never (and so they prayed)

[figure description] Page 127.[end figure description]

come again. Death and the Mastodon held a fearful
encounter in the arena below. Nations looked
down from the wall and the mountains on the
strange and terrible spectacle.

To and fro the whole famished bulk moved
with the convulsions, and spasms, and devouring
agonies of hunger. At times the Brute raised his
large countenance toward heaven, and howled
forth a cry which, it seemed, might bring down
the gods to his succor.

On the fortieth day Behemoth died and left his
huge bones extended on the plain like the wreck
of some mighty ship stranded there by a Deluge,
to moulder century after century, to be scattered
through a continent by a later convulsion, and,
finally, to become the wonder of the Present
Time.

[figure description] Blank Page.[end figure description]

[figure description] Page 131.[end figure description]

The chief object of the following notes is to
confirm what may seem the hazardous assertions of
the text, and to show that imagination, wherever
practicable, has helped itself cautiously forward
by a hand placed on the shoulder of fact. Many of
the extracts from antiquarian or scientific works,
may seem to the general reader of unusual length,
but he may rest assured, that they all contain matter
in which he may reasonably feel some interest.
The facts connected with the subjects of this work,
have furnished for many years topics for the zealous
and enthusiastic research and discussion of intelligent
Americans throughout the whole country,
and which are likely to prove more attractive to the
imagination, the farther we recede from the gray
and venerable age in which they existed. As our
own history assumes a prouder and loftier crest in
the noonday concourse and throng of nations, she
will more fondly and reverently cast back her regards
toward the first fountains of her origin. Is it too
much a pastime of the fancy to believe that, as
Americans, in the progress of time, attain the stature
of a generous manhood, they will more affectionately
grasp the shadowy hand extended to them

[figure description] Page 132.[end figure description]

by that dead old nation that built the mounds. The
swifter the present time yields its concerns and
its labors to the simple agency of steam and iron,
the more earnestly, it seems to me, will it look back
to that great embodiment of natural and unmechanical
strength, the Mastodon of the western
prairie. As men and day-laborers we dwell in the
present—as gods and diviner beings, we reside in the
past and the future!

History nor chronicle presents to the mind a
more august or imposing subject of speculation
than the unrecorded race that has departed like a
shadow, from the glorious and magnificent west.
Here we can enjoy a spectacle of which the imagination
is chief architect, where no vulgar circumstance
intrudes, and where the actors are heroic
and all the decorations in the highest style the fancy
chooses to furnish. On the great rivers of the west
we may launch, in that remote and doubtful age,
the mightiest ships with wide spread sails, and on
their banks we may rear the gorgeous palace and
solemn temple without the meaner aid of builder
or mason. Who shall gainsay the cheerful and
glorious labors of the fancy? Into our minds let
a thousand tender and affecting thoughts enter of
the lovers that have wooed, and wooed in vain, of
hearts that have broken in the agony of sharp bereavements,
of ambition deposed and genius blighted
within the walls of that ancient and departed
people. Who will refuse to the heart this melancholy
pleasure! It is good for us to have that part
of our nature which connects us with far-off times,

[figure description] Page 133.[end figure description]

awakened and kindled. A decaying bone, an old
helmet, a mouldering fragment of wall or hearth-stone,
may call us back into centuries that are gone,
and make us feel our kindred with generations
buried long ago.

[figure description] Page 134.[end figure description]

The following passages are quoted from the interesting
paper on “The Gigantic Mastodon,” in
Godman's “American Natural History.”

“In various parts of North America single bones
of extraordinary size had been occasionally disinterred,
without exciting more than temporary curiosity,
or leading to any thing better than wild and unsatisfactory
speculation. Some persons regarded
them as the relics of a gigantic race of men, of whose
existence no other traces remained: others, who appeared
willing to surpass all absurdity, suggested
that they might have belonged to the angels who
were expelled their celestial habitations; while a
third, and more rational party, concluded that they
were the bones of an animal still in existence, or belonged
to a larger variety of the well known elephant
species. The inquiry generally ceased when
the novelty of their discovery passed away; those
by whom they were found were in pursuit of other
objects, and very frequently neglected to preserve
the fragments already obtained. But when

[figure description] Page 135.[end figure description]

situations were explored where they were procured in
greater abundance, and the curiosity of European
naturalists was awakened, these relics were eagerly
sought for, until nearly a whole skeleton was obtained;
the fact satisfactorily established, that these
bones belonged to a peculiar race never before
known, and, what was still more surprising, that the
whole race was utterly extinct.

We find as early as the year 1712, a letter from
Dr. Mather to Dr. Woodward, published in the
Philosophical Transactions, announcing that some
bones and teeth of a monstrous size had been discovered
at Albany in New-York. In the year 1739,
some savages belonging to the company of a French
officer, named Longueil, who was descending the
Ohio to the Mississippi, found, at a short distance
from the river, at the edge of a marsh, some bones,
grinders and tusks, belonging to this unknown animal.
The year after Longueil took to Paris a thighbone,
the extremity of a tusk, and three grinders,
which are still preserved there. Since that time
these bones have been discovered in many places;
though, in consequence of the notice first attracted
by the specimens found on the Ohio river, the name
of Animal of the Ohio had been bestowed on this
creature, yet this name, and that of Mammoth, have
at length been entirely superseded by that proposed
by Cuvier. About the year 1740, vast numbers of
these bones, which had been washed up by the current
of the Ohio, or were purposely digged for, were
found in Kentucky. The eagerness to procure them,
and the haste with which they were sent to Europe,

[figure description] Page 136.[end figure description]

retarded the knowledge of the true character of the
animal—as it became impossible to procure or recognise
the bones belonging to different skeletons,
or to determine their exact numbers and proportions.
Over France, England and Germany, they
were in this manner scattered in confusion; and we
need not be surprised that naturalists were long in
forming just ideas of the character of the animal, or
indulged so much the disposition to maintain theories
established on such slight foundations. The force of
prejudice may be clearly seen in the perseverance
with which Buffon, and some other scientific men,
maintained that these bones belonged to a variety of
the elephant race; for if he admitted that they did not
belong to that kind, he must have acknowledged that
they were the bones of an extinct genus, which was
an idea not then proposed, but has since most amply
been proved true, and a vast number of extinct species
discovered. It was not until the year 1801, a
period of eighty-nine years from the first discovery of
the bones at Albany, that any hopes were entertained,
of finding an entire skeleton of this wonderful
and interesting animal. In the year 1824, a considerable
part of a skeleton was raised in New-Jersey
by some scientific gentlemen of New-York; but
they have not discovered any thing more than was
previously made known by the exertions of Messrs.
Peale; the head, which is the only important part
wanting, was too much decomposed to enable them
to form any idea of its figure.

The emotions experienced, when for the first
time we behold the giant relics of this great animal,

[figure description] Page 137.[end figure description]

are those of unmingled awe. We cannot avoid reflecting
on the time when this huge frame was clothed
with its peculiar integuments, and moved by appropriate
muscles; when the mighty heart dashed
forth its torrents of blood through vessels of enormous
caliber, and the Mastodon strode along in supreme
dominion over every other tenant of the wilderness.
However we examine what is left to us, we
cannot help feeling that this animal must have been
endowed with a strength exceeding that of other
quadrupeds, as much as it exceeded them in size;
and, looking at its ponderous jaws, armed with teeth
peculiarly formed for the most effectual crushing of
the firmest substances, we are assured that its life
could only be supported by the destruction of vast
quantities of food.

Enormous as were these creatures during life,
and endowed with faculties proportioned to the bulk
of their frames, the whole race has been extinct for
ages. No tradition nor human record of their existence
has been saved, and but for the accidental
preservation of a comparatively few bones, we should
never have dreamed that a creature of such vast
size and strength once existed,—nor could we have
believed that such a race had been extinguished for
ever. Such, however, is the fact—ages after ages
have rolled away—empires and nations have risen,
flourished, and sunk into irretrievable oblivion, while
the bones of the Mastodon, which perished long before
the period of their origin, have been discovered,
scarcely changed in color, and exhibiting all the
marks of perfection and durability. That a race of

[figure description] Page 138.[end figure description]

animals so large, and consisting of so many species,
should become entirely and universally extinct, is a
circumstance of high interest;—for it is not with the
Mastodon as with the Elephant, which still continues
to be a living genus, although many of its species
have become extinct:—the entire race of the
Mastodon has been utterly destroyed, leaving nothing
but the “mighty wreck” of their skeletons, to
testify that they once were among the living occupants
of this land.”

[figure description] Page 139.[end figure description]

Atwater in his “Western Antiquities,” a work
full of curious information on the subjects of which
it treats, gives the following description of the fortifications
at Circleville, Ohio:

There are two forts, one being an exact circle,
the other an exact square. The former is surrounded
by two walls with a deep ditch between them —
the latter is encompassed by one wall without any
ditch—the former was sixty-nine rods in diameter,
measuring from outside to outside of the circular
outer wall—the latter is exactly fifty-five rods square,
measuring the same way. The walls of the circular
fort were at least twenty feet in height, measuring
from the bottom of the ditch before the
town of Circleville was built. The inner wall was
of clay taken up probably in the northern part of
the fort where was a low place, and is still considerably
lower than any other part of the work.
The outside wall was taken from the ditch which is

[figure description] Page 140.[end figure description]

between these walls, and is alluvial, consisting of
pebbles worn smooth in water and sand, to a very
considerable depth, more than fifty feet at least.
The outside of the wall is about five or six feet in
height now; on the inside the ditch is at present,
generally not more than eighteen feet. They are
disappearing before us daily and will soon be gone.
The walls of the square fort are at this time, where
left standing, ten feet in height. There were eight
gateways or openings leading into the square fort,
and only one in the circular fort. Before each of
these openings was a mound of earth perhaps four
feet high, forty feet perhaps in diameter at the
base, and twenty or upwards at the summit. These
mounds for two rods or more, are exactly in front of
the gateways, and were intended for the defence of
these openings.

As this work was a perfect square, so the gateways
and watch towers were equi-distant from
each other. These mounds were in a perfectly
straight line, and exactly parallel with the wall.

D (The reader is referred to a plate) shows the
site of a once very remarkable ancient mound
of earth, with a semicircular pavement on its eastern
side, nearly fronting, as the plate represents the
only gateway leading into the fort. This mound is
entirely removed; but the outline of the semicircular
pavement may still be seen in many places,
notwithstanding the dilapidations of time and those
occasioned by the hand of man. This mound, the
pavement, the walk from the east to its elevated

[figure description] Page 141.[end figure description]

summit, the contents of the mound, &c., will be
described under the head of mounds.

The earth in these walls was as nearly perpendicular
as it could be made to lie. This fort had
originally but one gateway leading from it on its
eastern side, and that was defended by a mound of
earth several feet in height. Near the centre of
this work was a mound with a semicircular pavement
on its eastern side, some of the remains of
which may still be seen by an intelligent observer.
The mound has been entirely removed so as to
make the street level where it once stood.

B (Referring to a plate) is a square fort adjoining
the circular one, the area of which has been stated
already. The wall which surrounds this work, is
generally now about ten feet in height, where it
has not been manufactured into brick. There are
seven gateways leading into this fort, besides the
one that communicates with the square fortification;
that is, one at each angle and another in the wall
just half way between the angular ones. Before
each of these gateways was a mound of earth of
four or five feet in height, intended for the defence
of these openings. The extreme care of the authors
of these works to protect and defend every
part of the circle, is no where visible about this
square fort. The former is defended by two high
walls; the latter by one. The former has a deep
ditch encircling it; this has none. The former could
be entered at one place only; this at eight and
those about twenty feet broad. The present town
of Circleville covers all the round and the western

[figure description] Page 142.[end figure description]

half of the square fort. These fortifications, where
the town stands, will entirely disappear in a few
years, and I have used the only means within my
power to perpetuate their memory by the annexed
drawing and this brief description. Where the
wall of the square fort has been manufactured into
brick, the workmen found some ashes, calcined
stones, sticks, and a little vegetable mould; all of
which must have been taken up from the surface of
the surrounding plain. As the square fort is a perfect
square, so the gateways or openings are at equal
distances from each other, and on a right line parallel
with the wall. The walls of this work vary a
few degrees from north and south, east and west,
but not more than the needle varies, and not a few
surveyors have, from this circumstance, been impressed
with the belief that the authors of those works
were acquainted with astronomy. What surprised
me on measuring these forts, was the exact manner
in which they had laid down their circle and square;
so that after every effort, by the most careful survey,
to detect some error in their measurement, we
found that it was impossible, and that the measurement
was much more correct than it would have
been, in all probability, had the present inhabitants
undertaken to construct such work. Let those
consider this circumstance, who affect to believe
that these antiquities were raised by the ancestors
of the present race of Indians. Having learned
something of astronomy, what nation living as our
Indians do, in the open air, with the heavenly bodies
in full view, could have forgotten such

[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]

knowledge. Some hasty travellers who have spent an
hour or two here, have concluded that the “forts”
at Circleville were not raised for military, but for
religious purposes, because there were two extraordinary
tumuli there. A gentleman in one of our
Atlantic cities, who has never crossed the Alleghanies,
has written to me that he is fully convinced
that they were raised for religious purposes. Men
thus situated, and with no correct means of judging,
will hardly be convinced by any thing I can
say. Nor do I address myself to them directly
or indirectly; for it has long been my maxim, that
it is worse than vain to spend one's time in endeavoring
to reason men out of opinions for which
they never had any reasons.

The round fort was picketed in, if we are to
judge from the appearance of the ground on and
and about the walls. Half-way up the outside of
the inner wall, is a place distinctly to be seen, where
a row of pickets once stood, and where it was
placed when this work of defence was originally
erected. Finally, this work about its walls and
ditch, eight years since, presented as much of a defensive
aspect as forts which were occupied in our
wars with the French in 1755, such as Oswego
Fort, Stanwin, and others. These works have been
examined by the first military men in the United
States, and they have uniformly declared their
opinion to be, that they were military works of defence.”—
Pp. 45 to 48.

In Drake's “Book of the Indians,” (fifth edition)
the reader will find other military remains described:

[figure description] Page 144.[end figure description]

“Further up the little Miami at Deerfield, are
other interesting remains; but those which have
attracted more attention than any others in the
Miami country, are situated six miles from Lebanon,
above the mouth of Todd's Fork, an eastern
branch of the Miami. On the summit of a ridge
at least two hundred feet above the valley of the
river, there are two irregular trapezoidal figures,
connected at a point where the ridge is very much
narrowed by a ravine. The wall, which is entirely
of earth, is generally eight or ten feet high; but in
one place, where it is conducted over level ground
for a short distance, it rises to eighteen. Its situation
is accurately adjusted to the brow of the hill;
and as there is in addition to the Miami on the
west, deep ravines on the north, the south-east and
south, it is a position of great strength. The angles
in this wall, both retreating and salient, are numerous
and generally acute. The openings, or gateways,
are not less than eighty. They are rarely at
equal distances, and are sometimes within two or
three rods of one another. They are not opposite to,
or connected with, any existing artificial objects, or
topographical peculiarities, and present, therefore,
a paradox of some difficulty.”—Book I. p. 42.

That a numerous population once dwelt in the
midst of our western mounds, we are satisfied from

[figure description] Page 145.[end figure description]

every evidence that we are entitled to require.
Their public works, fortifications, walls, and towers,
testify to the labors of a populous nation: but if we
look into their graves, we receive a more emphatic
answer than all their living labors could furnish.
Every hillock in the mighty west is bursting with
the relics of this extinguished race; every plain is
crowded with the pale assemblies of their skeletons,
silently awaiting the only voice that can summon
them to speak of the past.

The particular number mentioned in the text is
derived from Mr. Brackenridge, who conjectured
that there were once five thousand villages of this
people in the valley of the Mississippi. Many of
the mounds contain an immense number of skeletons.
Those of Big Grave Creek are believed to
be completely filled with human bones. The large
ones, all along the principal rivers in this state,
(Ohio,) are also filled with skeletons. Millions of
human beings have been buried in these tumuli.—
From the Rocky Mountains in the West, to the
Alleghanies in the East, the country must have
been more or less settled by them.[1]

“Almost every traveller of late years has said
something of the mounds or fortifications scattered
over the south and west, from Florida to the Lakes,
and from the Hudson to Mexico and the Pacific
Ocean. By some they are reckoned at several
thousand. Mr. Brackenridge supposes there may
be three thousand; but it would not outrage

[figure description] Page 146.[end figure description]

probability, I presume, to set them down at twice that
number. Indeed no one can form any just estimate
in respect to the number of mounds and fortifications
which have been built, any more than of
the period of time which has passed since they were
originally erected, for several obvious reasons; one
or two of which may be mentioned:—the plough,
excavations, and levellings for towns, roads, and
various other works, have entirely destroyed hundreds
of them, which had never been described, and
whose sites cannot be ascertained. Another great
destruction of them has been effected by the changing
of the course of rivers.”—Drake, Book I. p. 41.

eaf263.n1

[1] Vide Atwater.

“Like many people, those aboriginals, in their
various methods of inhumation, deposited something
of real or supposed value with the deceased.
Perhaps they always did. The contrary cannot be
asserted, as many of the articles might have been
perishable. This practice assures us of their belief
in a future existence.”—Conjectures respecting the
Ancient Inhabitants of North America: by Moses
Fisk, Esq., of Hilham, Tennessee.—Vol. I. Archæologia
Americanæ.

Mr. Harris, a member of the Massachusetts' Historical
Society, gives the following account of the
ancient graves which are scattered over the whole
face of the western country:

[figure description] Page 147.[end figure description]

“The places called graves are small mounds of
earth, from some of which human bones have been
taken. In one were found the bones, in their natural
position, of a man buried nearly east and west,
with a quantity of isinglass (mica membranea) on
his breast. In the others, the bones laid promiscuously,
some of them appeared partly burnt and calcined
by fire, also stones, evidently burnt, charcoal,
arrow-heads, and fragments of a kind of earthenware.
An opening being made at the summit of
the great conic mound, there were found the bones
of an adult, in a horizontal position, covered with a
flat stone. Beneath this skeleton were thin stones,
placed vertically, at small and different distances,
but no bones were discovered. That this venerable
monument might not be defaced, the opening was
closed without further search. It is worthy of remark,
that the walls and mounds were not thrown
up from ditches, but raised by bringing the earth
from some distance, or taking it up uniformly from
the surface of the plain. The parapets were probably
made of equal height and breadth, but the waste
of time has rendered them lower and broader in
some parts than others. It is in vain to conjecture
what tools or machinery were employed in the construction
of these works; but there is no reason to
suppose that any of the implements were of iron.
Plates of copper have been found in some of the
mounds, but they appear to be parts of armor.
Nothing that would answer the purpose of a shovel
has ever been discovered.”

Mr. Harris quotes Dr. Cutter upon the probable

[figure description] Page 148.[end figure description]

antiquity of these mounds. The Doctor conceives
that the only clue remaining is the growth upon
them. He says, “one tree, decayed at the centre,
contained at least 463 circles. Its age was undoubtedly
more than 463 years. Other trees, in a growing
state, were, from their appearance, much older.
There were likewise the strongest marks of a previous
growth, as large as the present. Admitting
the age of the present growth to be 450 years, and
that it had been preceded by one of equal size and
age, which as probably as otherwise was not the
first, the works have been deserted more than 900
years.”

Mr. Harris remarks that “about 90 miles from
Marietta, on a large plain, bounded by one of the
western branches of the Muskingum, are a train of
ancient works, nearly two miles in extent, the ramparts
of which are yet in some places upwards of
18 feet perpendicular height. At Licking are very
extensive works, some of them different in construction
from those at Marietta; particulary several circular
forts, with but one entrance. They are formed
of a parapet from 7 to 12 feet in height, without any
ditch; the interior being of the same level with the
plain on which they are raised. Forts of this kind,
which are also found in other places, are from 3
chains to 15 or more in diameter. There are also
large walls and mounds on the Great Miami and
the Scioto.”

The original height, our author thinks, was diminished
by the gradual wasting away of the earth,
and the filling up of the interior, and the accretion

[figure description] Page 149.[end figure description]

of the soil over the whole surface of the plain, by
the annual deposit of leaves and the decay of timber.
The utensils he considers to have belonged
to a people far advanced in the arts.

“The elevated squares might be the foundations
of larger towns and arsenals. The excavations or
caves were undoubtedly wells, now filled up, water
being an essential article in a besieged place. Some
of these are above 40 feet in diameter, and about 5
feet in depth”—have some resemblance to sacred
enclosures found in Mexico.

“The smaller mounds, on the great plains, are
filled with bones, laid in various directions, in an
equal state of decay, and appear to be piled over
heaps of slain, after some great battle. Whereas
the larger mounds, near the fenced cities, are composed
of strata, if I may so say, of bones in more
regular order, of full-grown people and of infants,
and in different stages of decay, and seem formed
of the bodies of such as have died of sickness, or
were killed in occasional skirmishes, at different
times, with intervals, perhaps, of some years. In
some have been found plates of copper rivetted together,
copper beads, various implements of stone,
and a very curious kind of porcelain.”—The Journal
of a Tour into the Territory north-west of the Alleghany
Mountains, made in 1805 : by Thaddeus
Mason Harris, Member of Mass. His. Soc. Boston,
1805.

[figure description] Page 150.[end figure description]

The Rev. Robert G. Wilson, a receiving officer
of the American Antiquarian Society, furnished
Mr. Atwater with minute information concerning
a mound, which once stood near the centre of the
town of Chilicothe, Ohio.

Its perpendicular height, at the time of its demolition,
was about fifteen feet, and the diameter of
its base about sixty. It was composed of sand, and
contained human bones, belonging to skeletons
which were buried in different parts of it. It was
not until this pile of earth was removed, and the
original surface exposed to view, that a probable
conjecture of its original design could be formed.
About twenty feet square of the surface had been
levelled and covered with bark. On the centre of
this lay a human skeleton, over which had been
spread a mat, manufactured either from weeds or
bark. On the breast lay what had been a piece of
copper, in the form of a cross, which had now become
verdigris. On the breast also lay a stone ornament,
with two perforations, one near each end,
through which passed a string, by means of which
it was suspended round the wearer's neck. On
this string, which was made of sinews, and very
much injured by time, was placed a great many
beads, made of ivory or bone. “With these facts
before us,” concluded Dr. Wilson, “we are left to
conjecture at what time this individual lived; what
were his heroic achievements in the field of battle;
his wisdom and eloquence in the councils of his

[figure description] Page 151.[end figure description]

nation. But his contemporaries have testified, in a
manner not to be mistaken, that among them he was
held in grateful remembrance.”

“On the beach near the mouth of the Muskingum,
was discovered a curious ornament. It is made of
white marble, in form a circle about three inches in
diameter. The outer edge is about one inch in
thickness, with a narrow rim. The sides are deeply
concave, and in the centre is a hole about half an
inch in diameter. It is beautifully finished, and so
smooth that Dr. Hildreth is of the opinion that it
was once highly polished. It is now in the possession
of David Putnam, Esq., of Marietta, Ohio.
Other articles, similar to this, have been found in
several mounds in many places. The use to which
the one described was put, cannot certainly be
known. Was it a rude wind instrument of music?
or was it a badge of office and distinction?”— Atwater.—
Pp. 131, 132.

With regard to the pleasure gardens, which are
alluded to more than once in the text, I may as well
quote here a passage from the 26th volume of the
N. A. Review; at the same time taking the liberty
to differ entirely from the remarks of the writer as
to the barbarous character of other ancient memorials
found throughout the West: “In some cursory
remarks upon the large mounds in the vicinity of St.

[figure description] Page 152.[end figure description]

Louis, Mr. Schoolcraft justly observes, that `enough
has certainly been written on the subject of our
mounds to prove how little we know either of their
origin or of their interior structure.' These remains
of ancient art have attracted the attention of travellers
since the first settlement of the country; and
standing as they do, the sole monuments of human
industry, amid interminable forests, it is not surprising
that curiosity should be busy in investigating
the age and objects of their founders. But little has
been effected, however, to satisfy the rational inquirer;
and before much progress can be made, all
the facts connected with the topographical situation
and construction of these works, and with the remains
of earthen and metallic instruments found in
and about them, should be collected and preserved.
The Rev. Isaac McCoy, the Principal of the Missionary
establishment upon the St. Joseph of Lake
Michigan, a man of sound judgment and rigid integrity,
has observed a class of works in that country,
differing essentially from any which have been
elsewhere found. As his account of them is interesting,
we shall transcribe the letter he has addressed
to us.

`Aware of the interest you feel in every thing relating
to the character and condition of the aborigines
of our country, I do myself the pleasure to enclose
to you a plot of a tract of land which has been
cultivated in an unusual manner for this country,
and which was abandoned by its cultivators ages
ago. These marks of antiquity are peculiarly interesting
because they exhibit the work of civilized

[figure description] Page 153.[end figure description]

and not of savage man. All, or nearly all the other
works of antiquity, which have been found in these
western regions, convince the observer that they
were found by men who had made little or no advance
in the arts. If we examine a number of
mounds in the same neighborhood, we find them
situated without any regard to order in the arrangement,
precisely as modern savages place the huts in
their villages and plant the corn in their field. If we
observe a fortification made of earth, we shall find
it exhibits no greater order in its formation, than
necessity in a similar case would suggest to an uncultivated
Indian of modern days. If it be a
wall of stone, the stones are unbroken as they were
taken from the quarry, or rather from the neighboring
brook or river. In the works, to which I now allude,
we find what we suppose to be garden spots, thrown
into ridges and walks with so much judgment, good
order, and taste in the arrangement, as to forbid a
thought that they were formed by uncivilized man.
The plans sent you by no means represent the most
striking works. I procured them because the places
were near my residence. I can find several acres
together, laid out into walks and beds in a style
which would not suffer by comparison with any
gardens in the United States. These places were
not cultivated by the early French emigrants to the
country, because—1. They evince a population at
least twenty times greater than the French ever had
in any of the regions of the lakes in those early times.
In the tract of country in which I have observed
them, of one hundred and fifty miles in extent, north

[figure description] Page 154.[end figure description]

and south, from Grand River to the Elksheart, I
think the number and extent of these ancient improvements
indicate a population nearly or quite
equal to that of Indiana. 2. The early French establishments
were generally made on navigable
streams. But these improvements are spread over
the whole country. Scarcely a fertile prairie is
found on the margin of which we do not observe
these evidences of civilization. 3. These works were
abandoned by their proprietors long before the
country became known to the Europeans. The
timber standing, falling and decaying, on these cultivated
spots, has precisely the same appearance in
respect to age as that immediately adjoining. On a
cluster of these beds, a plan of which I send you, I
cut down a white oak tree which measured three
feet two inches in diamater, two and a half feet above
the ground, and which was three hundred and
twenty-five years old, if the real age of a tree is indicated
by the number of its concentric circles.
From the indications yet remaining, it is certain that
most of these works have disappeared. We find
none in the beech, ash or walnut land, because here
the earth is loose and mellow to the surface, and not
bound with grass. We find them rarely in the prairies
far from the timber, because the places of which
I speak have been, as I suppose, not fields but gardens
convenient to dwelling-houses, which were
probably placed in the vicinity of the timber for the
same reasons which induce our present settlers to
select similar sites for their residence. In what we
call barrens, adjoining prairies, the surface of the

[figure description] Page 155.[end figure description]

earth is bound by the grass, in the same manner as
that of the prairie itself, and by that means the
ridges are preserved. And notwithstanding the
causes which are in daily operation to destroy these
works, I am confident I have seen acres of them
which will last for centuries, if assailed by no other
hand than that of nature. The Indians of Grand
River informed me that these appearances are found
on all the waters of that river, and that they extend
south upon all the waters of the Kekalimazoo. A
few are found near Michillimackinac. To use their
expression, “the country is full of them.” The Indian
tradition on this subject, is, that these places were
cultivated by a race of men, whom they denominate
Prairie Indians, and that they were driven from the
country by the united tribes of Chippewas, Ottawas,
and Pottawatomies. The few who survived the
calamities of war, went westward, and some may
even yet exist beyond the Mississippi. But not the
smallest reliance can be placed on any Indian tradition
relating to a remote period.' ”

A single passage illustrative of the character of
this departed people, may be worth extracting from
an article in Silliman's Journal for 1834, entitled,
“Ten Days in Ohio, from the Diary of a Naturalist.”

Speaking of Circleville and its ancient works, he

[figure description] Page 156.[end figure description]

says, “a street has been opened across the little
mound which covered the hill, and in removing the
earth many skeletons were found in good preservation.
A cranium of one of these was in my possession,
and is a noble specimen of the race which
once occupied these ancient walls. It has a high
forehead and large bold features, with all the phrenological
marks of daring and bravery.”

Considerable discussion has arisen as to the size
of the builders of the mounds; some contending
that they were a nation of giants, while others as
strenuously argue that they were a race of dwarfs.
In this dilemma I have chosen to adopt a middle
course and to represent them as mere men. To enlighten
the reader, however, as to the state of the
question, the following extracts are furnished, the
first from Timothy Flint's able work, “Recollections
of the Valley of the Mississippi.”

“The more the subject of the past races of men
and animals in this region is investigated, the more
perplexed it seems to become. The huge bones of
the animals indicate them to be vastly larger than
any that now exist on the earth. All that I have
seen and heard of the remains of the men would
seem to show that they were smaller than the men
of our times. All the bodies that have been found
in that state of high preservation, in which they
were discovered in nitrous caves, were considerably
smaller than the present ordinary stature of
men. The two bodies that were found in the vast
limestone cavern in Tennessee, one of which I
saw at Lexington, were neither of them more than

[figure description] Page 157.[end figure description]

four feet in height. It seemed to me that this must
have been nearly the height of the living person.
The teeth and nails did not seem to indicate the
shrinking of the flesh from them in the desicating
process by which they were preserved. The teeth
were separated by considerable intervals, and were
small, long, white and short, reviving the horrible
images of nursery tales of ogres' teeth. The hair
seemed to have been sandy or inclining to yellow.
It is well known that nothing is so uniform in the
present Indian as his long black hair. From the
pains taken to preserve the bodies, and the great
labor of making the funeral robes in which they
were folded, they must have been of the “blood
royal,” or personages of great consideration in their
day. The person that I saw had evidently died by
a blow on the skull. The blood had coagulated
there into a mass of texture and color sufficiently
marked to show that it had been blood. The envelope
of the body was double. Two splendid
blankets completely woven with the most beautiful
feathers of the wild turkey arranged in regular
stripes and compartments encircled it. The cloth
on which these feathers were woven, was a kind of
linen of neat texture, of the same kind with that
which is now woven from the fibres of the nettle.
The body was evidently that of a female of middle
age, and I should suppose that her majesty weighed
when I saw her six or eight pounds.—At the time
that the Lilliputian graves were found on the Maumee
in the county of St. Louis, many people went
from that town to satisfy their curiosity by

[figure description] Page 158.[end figure description]

inspecting them. I made arrangements to go, but was
called away by indispensable duties. I relate them
from memory only, and from the narrative oral and
printed of the Rev. Mr. Peck, who examined them
on the spot. It appears from him that the graves
were numerous, that the coffins were of stone, that
the bones in some instances were nearly entire;
that the length of the bodies was determined by
that of the coffins which they filled, and that the
bodies in general could not have been more than
from three feet and a half to four feet in length.
Thus it should seem that the generations of the past
in this region were mammoths and pigmies.”

In “Travels in America, performed in 1806, for the
purpose of exploring the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela,
Ohio, and Mississippi, and ascertaining the
produce and condition of their banks and vicinity,
by Thomas Ashe,”—the reader will find the opposite
opinion, with many other curious matters, set forth.
The author, after describing with great particularity
his labors near Fort Harmer in Ohio, says, “I came
to a substance, which on the most critical examination
I judged to be a mat or mats in a state of entire decomposition
and decay. I took up the impalpable
powder in my hands and fanned off the remaining
dust with my hat. There existed under my feet a
beautiful tasselated pavement of small colored stones;
the color and stones arranged in such a manner as to
express harmony and shades, and to portray the full
length figure of a warrior under whose feet a
snake was exhibited in ample folds. No part of
the pavement was exactly of the tasselate character

[figure description] Page 159.[end figure description]

except the space between the outline of the figures
and the sides and ends of the entire space. Little
more than the actual pavement could be preserved;
it is composed of flat stones one inch deep, two
inches square, and the prevailing colors are white,
green, dark blue and pale spotted red; all of which
are peculiar to the lakes, and are not to be had
nearer. They are evidently known and filled with
a precision which proves them to have been but from
one common example. The whole was affixed
with a thin layer of sand which covered a large
piece of beech bark in great decay, whose removal
exposed what I was fully prepared to discover
from all the previous indications, the remains of a
human skeleton of uncommon magnitude extended
in a bark shell, which also contained, 1st. An earthen
urn or rather pot of earthen ware, in which were
several small broken bones and some white sediment.
The urn appears to be made of sand and
flint vitrified, rings like a rummer glass, holds about
two gallons, has a top or cover of the same material,
resists fire as completely as iron or brass; 2d. A
stone hatchet with a groove round the pole, by which
it was fastened with a withe to the handle; 3d.
Twenty-four arrow points made of flint and bone,
and lying in a position which betrayed their having
belonged to a quiver; 4th. A quantity of beads,
round, oval, and square; colored green, black,
white, blue and yellow; 5th. A conch shell decomposed
into a substance like chalk. This shell is
fourteen inches long and twenty-three in circumference;
6th. Under a heap of dust and tumous

[figure description] Page 160.[end figure description]

shreds of feathered cloth and hair, a parcel of brass
rings cut by an art unknown to me, out of a solid
piece of that metal, and in such a manner that the
rings are suspended from each other without the
aid of solder or any visible agency whatever.

Of the skeleton I have preserved a small part of
the vertebral column, a portion of the skull, a part
of the under jaw, &c.

Judging from comparison and analogy, the being
to whom these remains belonged, could not have
been less than seven feet high. That he was a
king, sachem, or chief of a very remote period,
there can be no manner of doubt.”

A letter from Dr. S. P. Hildreth, dated July 19,
1819, gives some account of the opening of a tumulus
at Marietta, and the various remains of antiquity
which it contained.

“In removing the earth which composed an ancient
mound in one of the streets of Marietta, on
the margin of the plain, near the fortifications,
several curious articles were discovered, the latter
part of June last. They appear to have been buried
with the body of the person to whose memory this
mound was erected. Lying immediately over, or on
the forehead of the body, were found three large circular
bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or a buckler;
they are composed of copper, overlaid with a thick

[figure description] Page 161.[end figure description]

plate of silver. The fronts of them are slightly convex,
with a depression like a cup in the centre, and
measure two inches and a quarter across the face of
each. On the back side, opposite the depressed
portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are
two separate plates by which they were fastened to
the leather. Two small pieces of the leather were
found lying between the plates of one of the bosses;
they resemble the skin of an old mummy, and seem
to have been preserved by the salts of the copper.
The plates of copper are nearly reduced to an
oxyde or rust. The silver looks quite black, but is
not much corroded, and on rubbing it becomes quite
brilliant. Two of these are yet entire: the third
one is so much wasted, that it dropped in pieces on
removing it from the earth. Around the rivet of
one of them is a small quantity of flax or hemp, in
a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of
the body was found a plate of silver, which appears
to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard;
it is six inches in length and two inches in breadth,
and weighs one ounce; it has no ornaments or
figures, but has three longitudinal ridges, which
probably correspond with edges or ridges of the
sword: it seems to have been fastened to the scabbard
by three or four rivets, the holes of which yet
remain in the silver. Two or three broken pieces
of a copper tube were also found, filled with iron
rust. These pieces, from their appearance, composed
the lower end of the scabbard, near the point
of the sword. No sign of the sword itself was

[figure description] Page 162.[end figure description]

discovered, except the appearance of rust above
mentioned.”

A second communication from the same gentleman,
to the President of the American Antiquarian
Society, will furnish evidence as to the armor and
weapons mentioned in the text:

“In addition to the articles found at Marietta,
I have procured, from a mound on the Little Muskingum,
about four miles from Marietta, some pieces
of copper, which appear to have been the front part
of a helmet. It was originally about eight inches
long and four broad, and has marks of having been
attached to leather; it is much decayed, and is now
a thin plate....... I have been told by an eye
witness, that a few years ago, near Blacksburgh, in
Virginia, eighty miles from Marietta, there was
found about half of a steel bow, which, when entire,
would measure five or six feet; the other part was
corroded or broken. The father of the man who
found it was a blacksmith, and worked up this curious
relic, I suppose, with as little remorse as he
would an old gun barrel.”

The author has taken the liberty of transferring
an Indian tradition to the credit of their predecessors,
the Mound-builders. From what source this
tradition, recited below, was derived; whether it
was the creation purely of a wild and barbarous

[figure description] Page 163.[end figure description]

imagination, or whether it came into their possession
from some contact with the Mound-building race,
the links of which are now entirely lost, are questions
that have passed beyond answer from philosophy
or conjecture.

“Some of the Upper Crees, a tribe who inhabit
the country in the vicinity of the Athabasca river,
have a curious tradition with respect to animals
which they state formerly frequented the mountains.
They allege that these animals were of frightful
magnitude, being from two to three hundred feet in
length, and high in proportion; that they formerly
lived in the plains a great distance to the eastward;
from which they were gradually driven by the Indians
to the Rocky Mountains; that they destroyed
all smaller animals; and if their agility was equal
to their size, would have also destroyed all the natives,
&c. One man has asserted that his grandfather
told him he saw one of those animals in a
mountain pass, where he was hunting, and that on
hearing its roar, which he compared to loud thunder,
the sight almost left his eyes, and his heart became
as small as an infant's.”—Adventures on the
Columbia River: by Ross Cox.

Jefferson, in his “Notes on Virginia,” has also
attributed a similar legend to the Delawares:

“During the Revolution, a delegation of warriors
from the Delaware tribe, told the governor of Virginia
that it was a tradition handed down from their
fathers, that in ancient times a herd of these tremendous
animals came to Big-Bone Licks, and
began an universal destruction of the bear, deer,

[figure description] Page 164.[end figure description]

elk, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been
created for the use of the Indians; that the Great
Man above, looking down and seeing this, was so
enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on
the earth, seated himself on a neighboring mountain,
on a rock, of which his seat and the print of his
feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts among
them, till the whole were slaughtered except the
big bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts,
shook them off as they fell, but missing one, at
length, it wounded him in the side; whereon,
springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over
the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great
lakes, where he is living at this day.”

[figure description] Page 165.[end figure description]

Should any unlucky doubt disturb the reader's
belief in the incident of Bokulla and the hawk, he is
referred to the 8th chapter of Ross Cox's “Adventures
on the Columbia River.” The following should
properly have been introduced as a note to page 81.
The most curious work that has appeared since Burton's
“Anatomie of Melancholy” is, I suspect, “American
Antiquities and Discoveries in the West,” by Josiah
Priest. It is an entire eagle's flight beyond any
tract, pamphlet or octavo, that has ever hovered
over the mounds and memorials of the Far West.
The book is in truth a perfect fac simile of the West
itself, where a thigh-bone nudges a piece of pottery;
a mummy stands sentinel over a rusty piece of
copper; and a whole range of robust fortifications
is laid deep and piled high to defend—nothing!
If there is any single topic of which this book does
not treat, we are so unfortunate as not to have formed
an acquaintance with the subject or science to

[figure description] Page 166.[end figure description]

which it belongs. Nothing is beyond the reach
of Mr. Priest's liberal and comprehensive sympathies:
He starts by establishing the location of
Mount Ararat, and indulging in sundry shrewd and
piercing conjectures as to the signification of Shem,
Ham and Japhet; the tumultuous times of Noah's
grandson, Peleg, then come in for a share of comment,
and the ten lost tribes—what book, treating
of America, could be perfect without the genealogy
of these vagrant Jewish gentlemen?—next put in
an appearance. Then follow chapters on Welch
discoveries, huge Mexican mounds, the state of
antediluvian scholarship, on draining, cannibalism,
and the Lord knows what else!—all rushing together,
without order or guidance, like a drove of
unhaltered mules. To do Mr. Priest justice,
however, (and every man who labors in the great
field of the West is entitled to some portion of honor)
he has accumulated in this book a large amount
of very curious information. He, for instance, introduces
a story like the following:—

“During the last year, 1832, a Mr. Ferguson
communicated to the editor of the Christian Advocate
and Journal, a discovery, which he examined
and described as follows: `On a mountain, called
the Lookout Mountain, belonging to the vast Alleghanian
chain, running between the Tennessee and
Coos rivers, rising about one thousand feet above
the level of the surrounding valley. The top of the
mountain is mostly level, but presents to the eye an
almost barren waste. On this range, notwithstanding
its height, a river has its source, which, after

[figure description] Page 167.[end figure description]

traversing for about seventy miles, plunges over a
precipice. The rock, from which the water falls, is
circular, and juts over considerably. Immediately
below the fall, on each side of the river, are bluffs,
which rise two hundred feet. Around one of these
bluffs the river makes a bend, which gives it the form
of a peninsula. On the top of this are the remains
of what is esteemed fortifications, which consist of a
stone wall built on the very brow of this tremendous
ledge. The whole length of the wall, following the
varying courses of the brink of this precipice, is
thirty-seven rods and eight feet, including about two
acres of ground.' The only descent from this place
is between two rocks, for about thirty feet, when
a bench of the ledge presents itself, from two to five
feet in width, and ninety feet long. This bench is
the only road or path up from the water's edge to
the summit. But just at the foot of the two rocks,
where they reach this path, and within thirty feet of
the top of the rock, are five rooms, which have been
formed by dint of labor. The entrance to these
rooms is very small, but when within, they are found
to communicate with each other, by doors or apertures.
Mr. Ferguson thinks them to have been constructed
during some dreadful war, and those who
constructed them to have acted on the defensive;
and believes that twenty men could have withstood
the whole army of Xerxes, as it was impossible for
more than one to pass at a time; and might by the
slightest push be hurled at least a hundred and fifty
feet down the rocks. The reader,' concludes Mr.
Priest, `can indulge his own conjectures, whether

[figure description] Page 168.[end figure description]

in the construction of this inaccessible fortress, he
does not perceive the remnant of a tribe or nation,
acquainted with the arts of excavation and defence;
making a last struggle against the invasion of an
overwhelming foe; where it is likely they were reduced
by famine, and perished amid the yells of their
enemies.”—Pp. 176, 177.

While on the subject of these ancient fortifications
again, I may as well quote an additional authority:
“A Journal through the Western Country
in the summer of 1816, by David Thomas: Auburn,
1819.” In describing the celebrated remains
at Cirrcleville,, Mr. Thomas says, (p. 94,) “I have noticed
the circular enclosure which has shaped the
town. There is also a square enclosure that touches
it on the east. But though these are stated to be
equal in area, the difference of figure is not greater
than the mode of construction. The circle is formed
of two banks which are separated by a ditch or
fosse, about 30 feet wide at the natural surface of
the ground, but 60 feet from the top of one bank to
the other. Much of the fosse doubtless has been
filled from the banks in the lapse of ages, but even at
this day a great excavation is visible. The square
on the reverse has no ditch. The bank is about 30
feet wide at the base, 12 feet high, and sufficiently
broad on the summit for a wagon road. It is a stupebdous
work, and yet the whole mass appears to
have been carried hither from a distance. This is
evident in respect to the north and south sides,
which are formed of clay resting on a gravelly sod;
and near the west bank, which is composed of the

[figure description] Page 169.[end figure description]

latter material, I saw no excavation from which it
could have been taken. Near the north-west corner
a swale or draught for water in heavy rains appears
both on the inside and outside of the wall, and
proves that it could not have been gathered from the
adjacent surface of the ground. It is a great singularity
that these materials should have been kept
separate and distinct. At the corners each kind
terminates; and the inner bank of the circular fort
is clay, but the outer is gravel. Doubtless the latter
was thrown from the ditch, and a stratum of clay
may have supplied the other; but it is questionable
whether the excavation yielded earth sufficient for
both banks.” Our author remarks, that if, as is probable,
these fortifications were high enough to guard
the entrance from missile weapons, a great depression
must have taken place. He states that the area
enclosed was variously estimated from 5 to 19 acres.
The east and west sides of the square, being 17°
to the right of the meridian. Hence, some suppose
that they were acquainted with the polarity of the
magnet; that by it the square was drawn, and that
the time can be calculated by its variation. The
small quantities of iron found in the mounds evinces
that this people were not acquainted with its
manufacture. No glass or substance like it has been
found. The magnetic period, if calculated at 1000
years, which is twice as great as is probable, would
not give the result within one such period. This
mound when discovered was overshadowed with a
forest. Considerable of the north and south walls
has been converted into brick. In a note to the

[figure description] Page 170.[end figure description]

passage, of which the substance has been above
given, Mr. Thomas discusses the vexed question of
the original peopling of this country at great length
and with much ability. He states that the comparative
size of various remains is not, as Dr. Drake
supposes, an index to their origin, for many of
these fortifications were destroyed in their progressive
state. He combats the opinion of Atwater, that
the Mound-builders first settled, subsequently to the
Indians, in the North; that the latter settled in the
Atlantic coast, and that the Mound-builders, on their
emigration thither, were so pressed by the Indians
that they followed the water courses to the south,
and thence migrated to Mexico and Peru. He
thinks the assertion of Dr. Drake, that the mounds
decrease in size, beauty and regularity, in a ratio
corresponding directly to the distance from Mexico,
and that the fact that the peccary, (the Mexican
hog), an animal only known there, has been found
in a cave in Kentucky, is evidence that a Mexican
colony inhabited Ohio and the West. “The fortifications
at Circleville and at other places, evince a
population not only too numerous to be supplied
with food from the forest, but too laborious to be
engaged in such uncertain pursuits, and on what
did they subsist becomes the question. Nothing of
this part of their story is known. None of our indigenous
vegetables, seem well adapted to supply
their wants; and as the regions, which they inhabited,
were all favorable to the production of the Indian
corn, it is no improbable conjecture that this
grain was their staff of life.”

[figure description] Page 171.[end figure description]

Persons disposed to visit ancient fortifications
may find remains at the following places:

1. About two miles southeasterly from Aurora, a
triangular area of one or two acres is protected on
two sides by precipitous banks, and on the other by
two ditches. Bones of animals and fragments of
ancient earthenware are found in beds of ashes.

2. On the hill south of Auburn,—also a circular
ditch enclosing about two acres, one and a quarter
miles N. N. E. of Auburn. The only opening or
gateway appears in the side adjasent to a spring,
and is formed by extending one end of the ditch
beyond the other. This simple contrivance rendered
such mounds as those of Circleville unnecessary.
No vestige of iron has been discovered, although
fragments of earthenware are numerous.

3. On the west of the Seneca River, N. W. from
Montezuma. On the east shore near this village a
small mound appears.

4. We also learn that considerable fortifications
are visible near Black River, between Brownsville
and Le Roy.

I am not sure that I can conclude the notes on the
Mastodon better than by furnishing the reader a
summary of information relating to that vast creature,
made up of facts and discoveries, as well as
tradition and conjecture, partly gathered from a
valuable note to De Witt Clinton's Discourse

[figure description] Page 172.[end figure description]

before the Lit. and Phil. Society of this city, and partly
prepared from other sources.

“The traditions of the Indians,” says Clinton
in the authority alluded to, which is a dissertation
rather than a note, “and the speculations of philosophers
respecting this enormous animal have been
various, and, perhaps on the whole, unsatisfactory.
It is certain that the Indians had some notions respecting
the mammoth, which they might have derived
from tradition, or, after seeing its remains,
they might have invented the fables which exist.
Charlevois, in his voyage to North America, (vol. I.),
says, `There is also a very diverting tradition
among the Indians, of a great elk of such monstrous
size that the rest are like pismires in comparison
of him; his legs, they say, are so long that eight feet
of snow are not the least encumbrance to him; his
hide is proof against all manner of weapons, and he
has a sort of arm proceeding from his shoulder, which
he uses as we do ours. He is always attended by
a vast number of elks, which form his court, and
which render him all the services he requires.' This
description, respecting the arm, appears like the
proboscis of an elephant. Kalm, who travelled in
this country in 1749, says, `some years ago a skeleton
of an amazing great animal has been found in
that part of Canada where the Illinois live on the
river Ohio. The Indians were surprised at the sight
of it; and when they were asked what they thought
it was, they answered that it must be the chief or
father of all the beavers. It was of a prodigious
bulk, and had thick white teeth about 10 inches

[figure description] Page 173.[end figure description]

long. It was looked upon as the skeleton of an
elephant. A French lieutenant in the fort, who had
seen it, assured me that the figure of the whole snout
was yet to be seen, though it was half mouldered.
He added, that he had not observed that any of the
bones were taken away, but thought the skeleton lay
quite perfect there. I have heard people talk of
this monstrous skeleton in several other parts of
Canada.'—Kalm's Travels, vol. 3.

In the 20th volume of Silliman's Journal will be
found a “Report of Messrs. Cooper, J. A. Smith and
De Kay, to the Lyceum of Nat. History, on a collection
of fossil bones, discovered at Big Bone Lick,
Kentucky, in September, 1830, and recently brought
to New-York.” The report is followed with remarks
by the editor, which corroborate certain suggestions
in the First Part of this work. “Having (since
the above account was received) seen the collection
of bones so accurately described above, I cannot refrain
from attempting to convey to others something
of the impression made upon my own mind, on entering
the room containing this astonishing assemblage
of bones, many of which are of gigantic size.
They produce in the beholder the conviction that races
of animals formerly existed on this continent, not
only of vast magnitude, but which must also have been
very numerous; and the Mastodon, at least, ranged in
herds over probably the entire American continent. It
is stated by the person who exhibits this collection,
that the skull and the tusks which it contains, weigh
upwards of five hundred pounds; that a pair of
tusks now lying in the room and supposed to

[figure description] Page 174.[end figure description]

belong to the same species, weighed six hundred
pounds when taken from the ground; and these are
nearly perfect; and when we regard them as being
merely appendages, and sustained by the animal at
a great mechanical disadvantage, since they do not
like horns rest upon the head, but project from it
laterally forward, we can easily imagine that it would
require the most powerful muscles to sustain and
wield the entire cranium tusks, muscles and integuments.
We shall be happy to see additional illustrations
from the able committee to whom we are indebted
for the previous statement of facts. We will,
however, venture to mention the extraordinary curvature
of the tusks: those of the elephant we believe
are always in the form of a bent bow, but these have
almost the shape of a sickle, with the blade curved to
one side; they are sharp and pointed.”

In the year 1748, M. Fabri, who had made great
excursions into the northern parts of Louisiana and
the southern regions of Canada, informed Buffon
that he had seen heads and skeletons of enormous
quadrupeds, called by the savages the father of oxen;
and that the thigh bones of the animals were from 5
to 6 feet in length.—Buffon's Nat. Hist., transl. by
Smellie, vol. 9.

In Siberia a similar animal was supposed to exist
under ground, and many fables were related respecting
it, under the Russian name of mammoth. Notwithstanding
these traditions and reports, the attention
of the philosophers of Europe was not fully
drawn to this subject until 1765, when Mr. George
Croghan saw, in the vicinity of a large salt marsh, on

[figure description] Page 175.[end figure description]

the country bordering on the Ohio, immense bones
and teeth, and he sent some of them to England,
where they immediately became the subject of speculation
and discussion. Before this similar bones were
discovered in the Russian dominions. Dr. Hunter,
the celebrated anatomist, from an examination of the
teeth, pronounced them to belong to a carnivorous
nondescript animal. Daubenton declared at one
time that this animal was an elephant; and at another
time thought that the teeth were those of an
hippopotamus, and conceived that the animal partook
of both of these species, and was a real mule.
Muller supposed that they belonged to certain unknown
quadrupeds, denominated maumouts, or
mammoths from the Russian name, supposed to have
been derived from the Hebrew, Behemoth. Buffon
was of opinion, that, independently of the elephant
and hippopotamus, whose relics are equally found
in the two continents, another animal, common to
both, has formerly existed, the size of which has
greatly exceeded that of the largest elephants; and
at one period he supposed that it was seven times
larger. Pallas believed that the bones found in Siberia
were those of the elephant and rhinoceros, and
said that those countries, which are now desolated
by the rigors of intense cold, have formerly enjoyed
all the advantages of the southern latitudes. Gmelin
supposes that vast inundations in the south had
driven the elephants to the north, where they would
all at once perish by the rigor of the climate. Others
are of opinion that the tusk and skeleton belonged
to the elephant, and the molares to the

[figure description] Page 176.[end figure description]

hippopotamus; as the grinders were not those of the former,
some thought that they were the bones of the hippopotamus
only; others of a monster of the ocean.
And the Abbe Clavigero says, “that they may from
what appears have belonged to giants of the human
as well as of any other race.” Jefferson asserts that
the skeleton of the mammoth bespeaks an animal of
five or six times the cubic volume of the elephant,
and that the grinders are five times as large—are
square, and the grinding surfaces studded with four
or five rows of blunt points; whereas, those of the
elephant are broad and thin, and their grinding surface
flat.” To mention all the hypotheses and fables
which this subject has produced, would be useless
and consume too much time; but two or three
more are worth stating, on account of their whimsical
absurdity. One writer says, that the bones in
question are the remains of certain angelic beings,
the original tenants of this our terrestrial globe, in
its primitive state, till, for their transgressions, both
were involved in ruin; after which this shattered
planet was refitted for its present inhabitants.
Another imagines that at some remote period the
places in which these bones were found might
have laid in the track of a conqueror unknown to
the historians of Europe; that it might have been
the scene of a battle, and the animals in question
part of the baggage train destroyed by slaughter or
disease, and left, in the hurry of flight, to puzzle and
set at defiance generations yet unborn.

Within a few years a better opportunity has been
afforded of forming just conclusions respecting this

[figure description] Page 177.[end figure description]

animal. Within the extent of a few miles five or
ten skeletons have been discovered at the bottom of
marl pits in Orange and Ulster counties, and (from
the calcareous nature of the substance in which they
were deposited) in a high state of preservation. One
of these skeletons has been mounted and placed in
its natural form and with almost all the bones in
Peale's Museum in Philadelphia.

In 1799, upon the shores of the Frozen ocean,
near the mouth of the river Lena, in Siberia, a Tongouse
chief discovered in the midst of a rock of ice,
a substance which did not resemble the floating
pieces of wood usually found there; he endeavored
in vain to ascertain what it was at that time. About
the close of the second summer enabled him to know
that it was a mammoth; but he could not succeed
in obtaining the tusks of the animal until the end of
the fifth year, when the ice, which enclosed it, having
partly melted, the level became sloped, and this
enormous mass, pushed forward by its own weight, fell
over upon its side on a sand bank. In March, 1804,
the Chief Schoumachoff obtained the tusks and sold
them for fifty roubles. In the summer of 1806, Michael
Adams, a member of the Academy of St. Petersburgh,
visited the mammoth in company with
the chief, and found it in a very mutilated state.
The proprietor was content with the profits he had
already derived from it, and the jakouts of the
neighborhood tore off the flesh with which they fed
their dogs. Ferocious animals, white bears of the
north pole, gluttons, wolves, and foxes preyed upon
it also, and their burrows were seen in the

[figure description] Page 178.[end figure description]

neighborhood. The skeleton, almost completely unfleshed,
was entire, with the exception of one of the forefeet.
The spindyle from the head to the os coccygis,
a shoulder blade, the pelvis, and the remains of the
three extremities were still tightly attached by the
ligaments of the joints and by strips of skin on the
exterior side of the carcass. The head was covered
with a dry skin; one of the ears, well preserved, was
furnished with a tuft of bristles. The eyes were
also preserved, and the ball of the left eye could be
distinguished. The tip of the under lip had been
eaten away, and the upper part being destroyed exhibited
the teeth. The brain was still in the cranium,
but it appeared dry. The parts least damaged
were a forefoot and a hind one covered with skin
and having the sole attached.—See an account
of a Journey to the Frozen seas, and the discovery
of the remains of a mammoth, by Michael
Adams, of St. Petersburgh, in the 29th vol. of
Tillock's Philosophical Magazine, and Cuvier's
Essay on the Theory of Earth, transl. by Jameson.—
The mammoth of New-York, although bearing
some general resemblance to the elephant, differs
from it in the general figure; in the tusks, formation
of the head, prominence and pointedness of the
back over the shoulders, its great descent thence
from the hips, together with the comparative smallness
of the body; there are proofs of greater activity
also in the structure of the thigh-bones and
the formation of the ribs, which are peculiar and indicative
of greater strength; it also differs in the
magnitude of the spines of the back; the

[figure description] Page 179.[end figure description]

proportionate length of the processes from the spine of the
scapula; the thickness and strength of all the bones,
particularly of the limbs; the teeth, which are of
the carnivorous kind; its under jaw, which is distinctly
angular, instead of being semi-circular, as in
the elephant, besides several other striking distinctions.
There can be little doubt but that it is at
least specifically distinct from the elephant.—Philosophical
Magazine, Peale's account, vol. 14.

From the size of the head, the thickness and
solidity of the teeth, and the enormous magnitude
of the tusks, we can at once perceive that the neck
of the animal must of necessity have been short, in
order to sustain so great a weight. These circumstances,
considered in connection with the length of
the limbs presently to be described, clearly indicates
that the Mastodon, like the Elephant, had a long and
flexible trunk for the purpose of conveying its aliment
to the mouth; the shortness of the neck and
the projection and curvature of the tusks, would
equally have prevented the approach of the mouth
to the ground.—Godman's Nat. Hist.

The examination of the Asiatic Mammoth has
also settled the question as to its identity with the
American. They are considered as specifically if
not generically different. Blumenbach has termed
the Asiatic mammoth, elephas primaevus or primogenus,
and the American mammoth the elephas
Americanus. Cavier calls it the mastodontus,
which name has been adopted by Dr. Barton. In
the memoirs of the National Institute, Cuvier describes
the former, elephas mammonteus, maxilla

[figure description] Page 180.[end figure description]

obtusiore, lamellis molarium tenuibus rectis; and
the latter he characterizes as follows: Elephas
Americanus, molaribus multi-cuspidibus, lamellis
post detritionem quadrilobatis. In his opinion,
neither of them are the same as the existing elephant,
and he considers them as extinct.—Sciences
Phys. et Mat. II..

Dr. Barton, of Philadelphia, is of opinion that the
animal described by Adams, although different from
the Ohio animal, has a great and striking affinity to
it. He believes there is a much greater affinity between
the Asiatic mammoth and the existing Asiatic
elephant, than between either of them and the Ohio
or American mammoth; yet there are several other
characters in which the resemblance is much closer
between the Ohio animal and the Asiatic mammoth,
than between the latter and the Asiatic elephant,
and that one of these characters consists in the great
resemblance of the incisores, tusks or horns. Dr.
Barton is further of opinion that the Asiatic mammoth
has been discovered in different parts of the
United States, and that a branch of the Susquehannah
receives its name of Chemung from the incisores
of one of these animals.—Port Folio, vol. 4, Barton's
letter to Jefferson.

Governor Pownall, in a paper published in the
Philosophical Magazine, vol. 14, after having viewed
the skeleton of the New-York mammoth, exhibited
by Mr. Peale in London, is of opinion that it
was a marine animal from the following circumstances:

1. Its being carnivorous, and its enormous bulk

[figure description] Page 181.[end figure description]

would therefore require a supply of animal food
from the earth which it could not get, and which
could only be found in the abundance of the waters.

2. He thinks there are parts in the debris of the
skull which have some comparative resemblance to
the whale as to the purpose of breathing under water;
that the width of the jaws is similar to that of
fish; and that the ribs more similar to those of fish
than to those of terrestrial animals, are, by their construction
and position, ordained to resist a more
forcible external compression than the atmosphere
creates.

3. That the neck is so short that the animal could
not reach the ground with its mouth, the line from
the withers to the end of the under jaw being about
one third of the line from the withers to the ground.

Mr. Peale says that there are many reasons to
suppose that he was of an amphibious nature, and is
decidedly of opinion that he lived entirely on flesh
or fish.

While some may be willing to concur with
Mr. Peale as to its amphibious nature, few will
agree with Pownall in its being an aquatic animal.
The shortness of its neck might have been supplied
by a trunk. The points, wherein it resembles in its
formation certain fish, are only indicative of amazing
strength; and there is no strong objection to
believe that it was also gramnivorous, and drew its
supplies from the vegetable as well as the animal
kingdom.

Upon the whole, we may, with considerable confidence,
come to the following conclusions:

[figure description] Page 182.[end figure description]

1. That the Asiatic and African living elephants
and Siberian mammoth are specifically distinct.

2. That the New-York, Ohio or American mammoth
is specifically if not generally different from
them.

3. That it was carnivorous, and lived upon the
land.

4. That it may have also been gramnivorous, or
omnivorous and amphibious.

5. And lastly, that it is extinct.

Extract from a letter of Silvanus Miller to De Witt
Clinton:

“The first discovery of these fossils was made in
the town of Montgomery, in the county of Orange,
by Rev. Mr. Annin. The place of discovery was in
a sunken and miry meadow, in digging a ditch to
carry off the excess of water. Several of the harder
parts or bones of the mammoth skeleton were discovered;
these were the ribs, two teeth (grinders)
and parts of the thigh bone; the teeth and ribs were
in a very sound state, but the others were considerably
decayed, and an exposure to the air had such an
effect upon them as to render their preservation
useless. Subsequent to that time several scattered
remains of skeletons of the same animal have been
discovered; but from carelessness or other causes
these have been lost. The speculations of persons
who saw these phenomena were various, and in
some instances ridiculous, affording no rational improvement
to the naturalist. The advancement of
agriculture, which began to show itself in the

[figure description] Page 183.[end figure description]

counties of Orange and Ulster at this period, while it enriched
the husbandman and beautified the country,
was the cause of other discoveries of this nature,
which drew the subject before the public, attracted
the immediate attention of literary men, and led to
the exertions of the enterprising Mr. Peale, of Philadelphia,
who procured two skeletons of these nondescript
animals nearly entire. By the ingenuity
and enterprise of this gentleman these hidden treasures
of natural history were brought to public
view, to astonish and delight the sons of science.
At the time of this discovery it was my lot to be in
the vicinity, and to contribute my exertions in taking
them from their hidden depositories. The parts
of these fossils heretofore discovered had excited an
interest far short of their importance. The numbers
being now increased, and a spirit of inquiry
being set on foot, excited a high degree of public interest.
The big bones (as they were called) were
exposed for show, and persons from various motives
in great numbers flocked to behold this hitherto
hidden wonder.

The nature and formation of this mammoth country,
as well as the particular places where those animals
were found, may possibly be interesting, and
to this object I shall devote a few general remarks.
The only fossils of this skeleton which have been
discovered, have been found in wet and miry lands
in the towns of Montgomery and Shawangunk. The
former in Orange and the latter in Ulster county, in
this state, distance about 80 miles from this city,
and 6 to 12 miles from Newburgh on the Hudson

[figure description] Page 184.[end figure description]

river. In a western direction from the Hudson
river for some 5 or 6 miles, the ground rises gradually
but perceptibly until you come to the confines
of Coldenham; the waters running easterly until
you arrive here, now take the contrary direction,
and turning westerly are disembogued into a considerable
stream, known by the name of the Wallkill
and sometimes the Paltz river. On the highlands
at Coldenham you perceive a range of high
mountains, known by the name of “Shawangunk
mountains,” from whence the waters run easterly,
and falling into the Wallkill are carried into the
Hudson river at the strand near Kingston, in Ulster
county, about 112 miles distant from New-York.
These mountains on the west, and a ridge of highlands
on the east, form a natural valley of very considerable
extent, varying in breadth from 35 in
the southern to the northern extremity of 3 miles
or thereabout. The formation and nature of this
country has nothing to characterize it from other
parts of our state in the middle district. The woods
and forest trees, the grasses and productions of every
kind, are those which are indigenous to various
parts of the state and to all adjacent counties. The
general formation of this country is smooth, marked
by some hills of secondary altitude, is susceptible of
yielding every kind of produce cultivated in northern
climates. The immense quantities of what is
generally termed Goshen butter, are made in this
valley and on the lands between it and the Hudson
river, extending from New Cornwall, situate at the
northern entrance into the Highlands, to the point

[figure description] Page 185.[end figure description]

of land called the Dause Kaumer, in the town of
Marlborough. In all this district of country the
pasturage is luxuriant and excellent, and affords
a greedy repast for black cattle, sheep, &c.

It will be seen from this succinct account of the
country, that whether the mammoth delighted in the
fertile plain, in the low and sunken meadow or
swamp, or in the lofty and craggy mountains, or in
all of them, the variety of the soil and formation of
the country, afford a gratification to all his natural
inclinations and propensities. I do not know, however,
that the marl discovered in abundance in Ulster
and Orange counties has been found in their
neighborhood; and it is proper to remark, that in
these sunken receptacles of vegetable and testaceous
solutions, have uniformly been found the bones of
the mammoth. Perhaps it may be said that
in this marl, by its alkaline qualities, have these
fossils alone been preserved from dissolution and
decay. The formation of these has evidently
been the work of ages. In many places the body
of this manure is thirty feet in depth, over which
grass and vegetable plants, common to such grounds,
grew in abundance, interspersed with trees of different
kinds.

Within a circle, the radius of which does not exceed
six miles, there are several hundred acres of
marl. A very small proportion of this has been explored
or dug to the bottom, where the fossil bones
have uniformly been discovered. By the force of
their own weight they have naturally sunk through

[figure description] Page 186.[end figure description]

the soft marl and found rest many feet below on
solid and harder ground; and yet within the periphery
of this circle nine skeletons of these prodigious
animals have been discovered. It may certainly
be safely computed that not one hundredth
part has been explored to the bottom. If then so
many have been found in so small a proportion of
this mammoth ground, and admitting that there has
been great good fortune in falling upon their place
of rest, does it not afford a most reasonable hypothesis
to say that there are vast numbers of these natural
curiosities deposited here for future discoveries,
and that at some period our country (in this
district) was fully inhabited by this stupendous animal;
that in numbers they equalled the other beasts
of the forest, such as the bear, the wolf, the panther,
&c., in the proportions which larger animals
bear to the smaller in the order of nature. That
they were carnivorous as well as gramnivorous is
pretty well authenticated by the formation of their
grinders. Indeed, my worthy and learned friend,
Dr. James G. Graham, who examined the fossils,
went still further; for the formation of the bones
near and belonging to the foot, warranted him, as a
professional man, in the belief that this animal had
claws.

Dr. Mitchell appears to have struck upon a philosophical
explanation, which is at once bold, and
will explain the phenomena. He places these curiosities
amongst elephantine relics, occasioned by
the change of the axis of the globe 90° at some very
remote period. By this hypothesis may be

[figure description] Page 187.[end figure description]

explained the existence of these bones and bodies of animals
belonging to low and warm latitudes, being
found in cold and frozen climates of the earth. That
gentleman supposes the ancient equator to have extended
in the northern hemisphere from the bay of
Bengal, near where the mouths of the Ganges are,
through Thibet, Tartary and Siberia to the present
North Pole, and thence along in North America,
through the tracts west of Hudson's Bay and Lake
Superior to the sources of the Mississippi, and thence
down to the Gulf of Mexico, near its places of disemboguement,
and so onward across New Spain to
the South Sea. That such was probably the old
equatorial line. In corroboration of this gentleman's
opinion he truly alleges, that under the ancient equator
have been found the remains of animals peculiar
to warm climates. The bones of the elephant and
the rhinoceros are discovered almost all the way
where he would designate the ancient equator; that
in colder latitudes the frozen bodies themselves, on
the banks of the Genesee and the Lena, and in masses
of ice lying upon the shores of the Asiatic continent
and thereabouts, have attracted the attention
of the naturalist; that in America the valley of the
Mississippi was the place of the former equator, in
which direction the fossil skeletons are most frequent,
and that the creatures to whom they belong
may be supposed to have perished at the grand catastrophe
in their proper and natural climates; that
the migration of the human race and the passage of
animals from Asia to America, find a solution by this
theory of easy and rational comprehension. * *

[figure description] Page 188.[end figure description]

It is important to add, that with the discoveries of
these skeletons have been found considerable locks
and tufts of hair; having been buried a great length
of time in a calcareous substance, it retained its natural
appearance, and was brought to light in a tolerable
state of perfection; the length was from one and
a half to two inches and a half, of a dunnish brown
color. In one instance the hair was much longer,
measuring from four to seven inches in length, of the
same color, and resembling in appearance the shorter,
and was conjectured to have been the mane of the
mammoth. Whether a discoloration had not taken
place from its native appearance must remain a matter
of conjecture. In every instance an exposure to
air caused it to moulder away into a kind of impalpable
dust. This fact would seem to render it certain
that the animal, the relics of whose body were here
found, appertained to a race totally different from
any elephants now known to naturalists.”

To bring down our brief on Behemoth to the
present moment, we give a paragraph which appeared
in a New-York paper (The Evening Star) of
February 8th:

“The Bones of the Mastodon at Auction.—It would
appear that the bones of the head of the American
Mastodon, which were, until lately, a desideratum
that all zoologists anxiously awaited the discovery
of, have been permitted by our learned societies to
leave this country. We have now the humiliating
consolation to know that these most rare and valuable
relics of this antediluvian monster, have been
hawked about the streets of London, until finally

[figure description] Page 189.[end figure description]

knocked down dog-cheap under the hammer of a
cockney auctioneer. So much for the love, the ardor
of our scientific association for the promotion of
the study of natural history! It is discreditable
that such precious treasures should have been thus
abandoned. We said so at the time; but it seems
there was not spirit enough to keep the bones of
our own proud king of the forest among us. It is
an enigma we cannot solve, how the idiot of an owner
never thought to go to Paris with his osteological
speculation. There they are interested in what relates
to our animals, fossils, &c.; and Cuvier, if
alive, would have been in ecstacies to have seen the
head of that Mastodon which he christened with this
name. The fine cranium with the upper jaw and
teeth brought only 100 francs. The head perfect,
44 inches long and 28 wide brought, however, 3,822
francs, i. e., near $750, which was not a tenth part
of its value; and that it is probably the only one that
has ever been discovered or ever probably may be.
We believe it came from Kentucky. Almost always
the head is found wanting, though the teeth
and leg bones are remarkably sound. The giant
quadruped that bounded over the prairies little
dreamed of the destiny that awaited him.”

Without pretending to adopt the opinions or conjectures
that follow, I quote them as expressing the

[figure description] Page 190.[end figure description]

views of an eminent man, and as embodying a plausible
explanation of the settlement of this country.
They are quoted from “Priest's Antiquities:”

“The following is from the pen of the late William
Wirt, of Virginia, on the subject of the ancient inhabitants
of this country: `Mr. Flint and other travellers
and sojourners in the West, state that the
impress of the leaves of the bread fruit tree, and the
bamboo, have frequently been found in peat-bed and
fossil coal formations in the neighborhood of the
Ohio. Pebbles of disruption, vast masses of lead
ore far from the mine, stratified rocks, earth and
sand, and specimens of organic animal and vegetable
remains, belonging to a tropical climate, clearly
indicate some important and extensive changes occasioned
by fire or water in the whole great valley
of the Mississippi. Then the regular walls, the
bricks, the medals, the implements of iron and copper,
buried in a soil which must have been undisturbed
for ages, with the alphabetic characters written
on the cliffs, plainly show that other races of men
have existed and passed away. And what a world
must that have been, when the mammoth and the
megalonyx trod the plains, and monstrous lizards,
whose bones are now rescued from the soil, and
which must have been at least eighty feet in length,
reared their heads from the rivers and the lakes!

The mighty remains of the past, to which we have
alluded, indicate the existence of three distinct races
of men, previous to the arrival of the white settlers.
The monuments of the first or primitive race, are
regular stone walls, well stoned up, brick hearths,

[figure description] Page 191.[end figure description]

found in digging the Louisville canal, medals of copper,
and silver swords, and other implements of
iron. Mr. Flint assures us that he has seen these
strange ancient swords. He has also examined a
small iron shoe, like a horse shoe, encrusted with
the rust of ages, and found far below the soil, and the
copper axe weighing about two pounds, singularly
tempered and of peculiar construction. These relics,
he thinks, belonged to a race of civilized men,
who must have disappeared many centuries ago. To
this race he attributes the hieroglyphic characters
found on the limestone bluffs; the remains of cities
and fortifications of Florida; the regular banks of
ancient live oaks near them, and the bricks found at
Louisville, nineteen feet below the surface, in regular
hearths, with the coals of the last domestic fire
upon them. These bricks were hard and regular,
and longer in proportion to their width than those
of the present day.

To the second race of beings are attributed the
vast mounds of earth, found throughout the whole
western region, from Lake Erie and west Pennsylvania
to Florida and the Rocky Mountains. Some
of them contain skeletons of human beings, and display
immense labor. Many of them are regular
mathematical figures—parallelograms and sections
of circles, showing the remains of gateways and subterranean
passages. Some of them are eighty feet
high, and have trees grown on them apparently of
the age of five hundred years. They are generally
of a soil differing from that which surrounds them,
and they are most common in situations where it

[figure description] Page 192.[end figure description]

since has been found convenient to build towns and
cities. One of these mounds was levelled in the
centre of Chilicothe, and cart loads of human bones
removed from it. Another may be seen in Cincinnati,
in which a thin circular piece of gold, alloyed
with copper, was found last year. Another in St.
Louis, called the falling garden, is pointed out to
strangers as a great curiosity. Many fragments of
earthenware, some of curious workmanship, have
been dug throughout this vast region. Some represented
drinking vessels, some human heads, and
some idols. They all appear to be moulded by the
hand and hardened in the sun. These mounds and
earthen implements indicate a race inferior to the
first, which was acquainted with the use of iron.

The third race are the Indians, now existing in
the western territories. In the profound silence and
solitude of these western regions, and above the
bones of a buried world, how must a philosophic traveller
meditate upon the transitory state of human
existence, when the only traces of the beings of two
races of men are these strange memorials! On this
very spot, generation after generation has stood, has
lived, has warred, grown old, and passed away; and
not only their names, but their nation, their language,
has perished, and utter oblivion has closed
over their once populous abodes! We call this
country the New World. It is old! Age after age,
and one physical revolution after another, has passed
over it, but who shall tell its history?”