have been disinterred, and the
enormous extent of some of their earth-works, would argue a degree of
art, and of collective industry, to which the Indians are entire
strangers. We may, at the least, conclude that either they, in the lapse
of ages, have greatly degenerated, or that the mound-makers were a
distinct and superior race. Some of these mounds are found in Virginia.
The most remarkable of these is the Mammoth Mound, in the County of
Marshall. Mr. Jefferson[85:A] was of opinion that there is nothing
extant in Virginia deserving the name of an Indian monument, as he would
not dignify with that name their stone arrow-points, tomahawks, pipes,
and rude images. Of labor on a large scale there is no remain, unless it
be the barrows, or mounds, of which many are found all over this
country.

They are of different sizes; some of them constructed of earth, and
some of loose stones. That they were repositories of the dead is
obvious, but on what occasion they were constructed is a matter of
doubt. Mr. Jefferson opened one of them near Monticello, and found it
filled with human bones. The Mammoth Mound in Marshall County is 69 feet
high, 900 in circumference at the base; in shape the frustrum of a cone,
with a flat top 50 feet in diameter. An oak standing on the top has been
estimated to be five hundred years old. In the interior have been
discovered vaults, with pieces of timber, human skeletons, ivory beads,
and other ivory ornaments, sea-shells, copper bracelets around the
wrists of skeletons, with laminated mica, and a stone with hieroglyphic
characters inscribed on it, in the opinion of some, of African origin.
The whole mass of the mound is studded with blue spots, supposed to have
been occasioned by deposites of the remains of human bodies consumed by
fire. Seven lesser mounds are connected with the main one by low
entrenchments. Some rude towers of stone, greatly dilapidated, are also
found in the neighborhood. Porcelain beads are picked up, and a stone
idol has been found, as also tubes of lead, blue steatite, syphon-like,
drilled, twelve inches long, and finely polished.

The places of habitation of the Indians may yet be identified along the
banks of rivers, by the deposites of shells of oysters and muscles,
which they subsisted upon, as also of ashes and charred wood,
arrow-points, fragments of pottery, pipes, tomahawks, mortars, etc.
Vestiges may be traced of their moving back their cabins when urged by
th