works have not yet been established.
There is nothing to indicate that they had settlements any where in the
mining region. Colonel Whittlesey, and others whose study of the subject
gives their opinion much weight, believe the Mound-Builders went up from
the settlements farther south in the summers, remained in the copper
region through the season, and worked the mines in organized companies
until the advance of winter terminated their operations.

Colonel Whittlesey says: "As yet, no remains of cities, graves,
domiciles, or highways have been found in the copper region;" and adds,
"as the race appears to have been farther advanced in civilization than
their successors, whom we call aborigines, they probably had better
means of transportation than bark canoes." It may be said, also, that
the accumulations called wealth were necessary to make this regular and
systematic mining possible. Without these they could not have provided
the supplies of every kind required to sustain organized companies of
miners through a single season. A great many summers must have passed
away before such companies of miners, with all needed tools and
supplies, could have made their works so extensive by means of such
methods as they were able to use.

They probably occupied the country on the Gulf and Lower Mississippi
much longer than any other portion of the great valley. Their oldest and
latest abandoned settlements appear to have been in this region, where,
we may reasonably suppose, they continued to dwell long after they were
driven from the Ohio Valley and other places at the north.

The Natchez Indians found settled on the Lower Mississippi may have been
a degenerate remnant of the Mound-Builders. They differed in language,
customs, and condition from all other Indians in the country; and their
own traditions connected them with Mexico. Like the Mexicans, they had
temples or sacred buildings in which the "perpetual fire" was
maintained. Each of their villages was furnished with a sacred building
of this kind. They had also peculiarities of social and political
organization different from those of other tribes. They were
sun-worshipers, and claimed that their chief derived his descent from
the sun. The Natchez were more settled and civilized than the other
Indians, and, in most respects, seemed like another race. One learned
investigator classes them with the Nahuatl or Toltec race, thinks they
came from Mexico, and finds that, like