Page:Observationsonab00squi.djvu/73

 68 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS

The limit assigned to this paper prohibits any further account of the remains found in the mounds. What has already been presented may serve to give some slight conception of their general character, if not of their number. The relationship which they exhibit, in many respects, to remains found elsewhere on the continent, will probably be forcibly suggested to most minds, and may serve ina degree to indicate, as has already been remarked, the dependencies and intercourse, as well as illustrate the minor arts of the ancient people. They should, however, be considered only in connection with the other more imposing remains with which they are associated, as collateral aids in the solution of the grand questions in- volved in the ancient history of man in America.

Scunerurep Tasiers.—There is a single point more, which, from a variety of causes, has been invested with special interest, and which it will not be out of place to notice in this connection, viz.; the alleged discovery, in

taria which yet resist the disintegrating action of the water, and retain their original beds. These septaria are of an oblate-spheroidal figure, some of them measuring from nine to twelve feet in circumference. They frequently

have apertures or hollows in their middle, with radiating fissures, filled with crystaline spar or sulphate of baryta. These fissures sometimes extend be- yond them, in the slate rock, constituting the “ good joints” above mentioned. The slate layers are not interrupted by these singular productions, but are bent or wrapped around them. The following cut illustrates their character :

A is avertical section: a exhibiting the water, b the rock. At ¢ the sep- tarium has disintegrated, or has been removed, and its cavity or bed is filled with pebbles. At d the nodule still remains. B exhibits the appearance pre- sented by d from above.