particular bit of
evidence as announced by Squier and Davis, or to give a somewhat
different turn to the conclusions derivable from the testimony offered
by them. But in the main the theories first announced by the authors of
"Ancient Monuments," as the result of their study of the mound
sculptures, are those that pass current to-day. Particular attention may
be called to the deep and lasting impression made by the statements of
these authors as to the great beauty and high standard of excellence
exhibited by the mound sculptures. Since their time writers appear to be
well satisfied to express their own admiration in the terms made use of
by Squier and Davis. One might, indeed, almost suppose that recent
writers have not dared to trust to the evidence afforded by the original
carvings or their fac-similes, but have preferred to take the word of
the authors of the "Ancient Monuments" for beauties which were perhaps
hidden from their own eyes.

Following the lead of the authors of the "Ancient Monuments," also, with
respect to theories of origin, these carvings of supposed foreign
animals are offered as affording incontestible evidence that the
Mound-Builders must have migrated from or have had intercourse, direct
or indirect, with the regions known to harbor these animals. Were it
not, indeed, for the evident artistic similarity between these carvings
of supposed foreign animals and those of common domestic forms--a
similarity which, as Squier and Davis remark, render them
"indistinguishable, so far as material and workmanship are concerned,
from an entire class of remains found in the mounds"--the presence of
most of them could readily be accounted for through the agency of trade,
the far reaching nature of which, even among the wilder tribes, is well
understood. Trade, for instance, in the case of an animal like the
manatee, found no more than a thousand miles distant from the point
where the sculpture was dug up, would offer a possible if not a probable
solution of the matter. But independently of the fact that the
practically identical character of all the carvings render the theory of
trade quite untenable, the very pertinent question arises, why, if these
supposed manatee pipes were derived by trade from other regions, have
not similar carvings been found in those regions, as, for instance, in
Florida and the Gulf States, a region of which the archaeology is fairly
well known. Primitive man, as is the case with hi