the early Metallic Ages, is lamentably
deficient. On our Western Continent we have the mysterious remains in
the gold-bearing gravels of the Pacific coast, the significance of which
is yet in dispute. We have the Paleolithic Age of Europe, represented by
the remains found in the gravels of the Delaware at Trenton, New Jersey.
When deposited there, and by what people used, is, perhaps, still
enshrouded in doubt.

Leaving now the past, expressed by geological terms, or by periods of
thousands of years, we draw near to our own tribes, near, at least,
comparatively speaking, and behold, here, also, we discern evidence that
an ancient culture, as marked as that which built its cities along the
fertile water-courses of the Old World, had its seat on the banks of our
great rivers; that here flourished in full vigor for an unknown length
of time a people whose origin and fate are yet in doubt, though, thanks
to the combined efforts of many able men, we begin to have clearer
ideas of their social organization. We know them only by reason of their
remains, and as these principally are mounds, we call them the "Mound
Builders."

The name is not a distinguishing one in every sense, since mankind, the
world over, have been mound and pyramid builders. The pyramids of Egypt
and the mound-dotted surface of Europe and Asia bear testimony to this
saying, yet nowhere else in the world are they more plainly divided into
classes, or marked with design than here. In some places fortified
hills and eminences suggest the citadel of a tribe or people. Again,
embankments of earth, mostly circular or square, separate and in
combination, generally inclosing one or more mounds, excite our
curiosity, but fail to satisfy it. Are these fading embankments the
boundaries of sacred inclosures, or the fortification of a camp, or the
foundations on which to build communal houses? Here graded ways, there
parallel embankments raise questions, but suggest no positive answer.
We are equally in doubt as to the purposes for which many of the mounds
were built. Some seem to have been used as places of sepulcher, some for
religious rites, and others as foundation site of buildings. Some may
have been used as signal mounds, from which warning columns of smoke, or
flaming fires, gave notice of an enemy's approach.

Before coming to details let us, at a glance, examine the picture as a
whole. This country of ours, with its wide plains, its flowing rivers
and great