Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/205

 augers, and hoes are usually of flint; their axes and celts are generally made of green-stone, a tough and heavy rock specially adapted to such use; the celts were inserted in handles and closely resemble those of the polished-stone period in the Old World. Their axes, all grooved for a withe, were frequently wrought with great skill and patience. The most common ornaments found with the remains of the mound-builders are anklets or armlets of copper, and strings of beads of shells or bone, of copper or baked clay. In addition to these are many large ornaments of shell or stone perforated for suspension from the neck or for attachment to the head.

Of the clothing of the mound-builders we have as yet little information, since the lapse of time has caused fabrics of vegetable or animal fiber to perish. In a few instances, however, the antiseptic properties of copper salts or special conditions have been the means of preserving some fragments of cloth made from the fibers of a plant. Of these the workmanship is so good that we may believe that woven fabrics were largely used for clothing.

In regard to the ethnic relations of the mound-builders, the age in which they lived, and the causes of their disappearance, much has been conjectured, but little can be asserted. As to the time in which they lived in the country they inhabited—when and how long—this at least may be said, viz., that they occupied all the forest-covered region of the Mississippi Valley—to which they seem to have given a decided preference—for many hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. This is indicated by the general occupation of this wide-spread area, the magnitude and number of such of their works as have resisted the ravages of time, and the great abundance of the stone implements of their manufacture found scattered over the surface; also by the extent of their mining operations on Lake Superior and elsewhere. All this can mean nothing less than the long-continued possession of the country.

The general distribution throughout the valley of the Mississippi of shells obtained on the Gulf or Atlantic coast; the copper, mica, galena, flint implements, etc., all of known origin, indicate considerable internal interchange of commodities, but furnish no proof of a foreign commerce.

In regard to the origin of these peoples little is known. We may infer from their bony structure that they belonged to the American family of men, and were not unlike, in structure, physical aspect, and color, the red Indian of to-day.

A few stone tablets have been found in the mounds, which are decidedly Mexican in character; and if, as seems probable, the authenticity of these relics should be established, they would go far to prove synchronism and intercourse between the VOL. XLI—16