g defensive positions found in such abundance
along Lake Erie and in Western New York, asserting the former to be
the works of the Mound Builders proper, and the latter the remains of
fortified Indian villages. This may be true, but it seems to us that
there is such a common design running through all these remains that it
is more reasonable to infer that the more massive works were constructed
by people more advanced than those who built the less pretentious works,
but not necessarily of a dilterent race. We can not do better than to
quote the remarks of Mr. Brackenridge in this connection: "We are
often tempted by a fondness for the marvelous to seek out remote
and impossible causes for that which may be explained by the most
obvious."<25>

But inclosures and defensive works are only a small part of the Mound
Builders' remains. We know that large numbers of mounds are scattered
over the country, and we recall in this connection what was said as to
the erection of mounds by Indian tribes in a preceding essay. Somewhat
at the risk of repetition we will once more examine this question. It
is generally admitted that it was the custom of Indian tribes to erect
piles of stones to commemorate several events, such as a treaty, or
the settlement of a village, but more generally to mark the grave of a
chief, or some noted person, or of a person whose death occurred
under unusual circumstances.<26> These cairns are not confined to
any particular section of the country, being found in New England,
throughout the South, and generally in the Mississippi Valley. From
their wide dispersion, and from the fact that they do not differ from
the structures built by Indian tribes within a few years past, it is not
doubted but what they are the works of Indians.

Now, if we could draw a dividing line, and say that, while the Indians
erected mounds of stone, the Mound Builders built theirs of earth, it
would be a strong argument in favor of a difference of race. But this
can not be done. When De Soto landed in Florida, nearly three hundred
and fifty years ago, he had an opportunity of observing the customs
of the Indians as they were before the introduction of fire-arms, and
before contact with the Whites had wrought the great change in them it
was destined to. Therefore, what few notes his historians have given
us of the ways of life they observed amongst the southern tribes are of
great importance in this connection. At the very spot wher