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on a line with the gate-ways, there is a mound 245 feet long and 150 feet broad. The form of this work is shown by the diagram on the opposite page. When this work first attracted the attention of Mr. E. G. Squier, Dr. Davis, and others engaged in archæological research, it was in the midst of a dense forest of heavy timber. Trees of the largest growth stood on the embankments, and covered the entire area of ground enclosed. About a mile and a half below, on the same side of the Scioto, are other fortifications, both circular and square, even more remarkable than the one last described, on account of the forms and combinations which they exhibit. Another fortification in this county, in the form of a parallelogram, 2,800 feet long by 1,800 feet wide, encloses several smaller works and mounds, which altogether make 3,000,000 cubic feet of embankment.

A series of the most wonderful and most gigantic of these pre-historic works, is to be found in the Licking Valley, near Newark. They cover an area of two square miles. The works are of such vast magnitude that even with our labor-saving implements to construct them, would require the labor of thousands of men continued for many months. "Fort Ancient", as it is called, in Warren county, Ohio, has nearly four miles of embankment, from eighteen to twenty feet high.

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Mounds and fortifications similar to those in Ohio are found in all the States of the Northwest, and indeed, throughout the entire valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries. In the valley of the Wabash, in Indiana, are many interesting remains of the works of the Mound Builders. Near Kahokia, Illinois, there is a mound 2,000 feet in circumference, and ninety feet high. Many remarkable objects of interest to the antiquary are found in Wisconsin. Scattered over her undulating plains are earth-works, modeled after the forms of men and animals. At Aztalan, in Jefferson county, is an ancient fortification 550 yards long and 275 yards wide. walls are from four to five feet high, and more than twenty feet in thickness at the base. Near the Blue Mounds, in that State, there is another work, in form resembling a man in a recumbent position. It is one hundred and twenty feet long and thirty feet across the trunk. At Prairieville there is still another resembling a turtle in shape which, is fifty-six feet in length. At Cassville there is one which is said to resemble the extinct mastedon. In some instances these animal resemblances and forms are much defaced by time, while in other cases they are distinctly visible. Fragments of ancient pottery are found scattered "about most of" them.

Scattered over the surface of Iowa, also, are to be found many of these monuments of a pre-historic race. The mounds especially are numerous, appearing most in that portion of the State east of the Des Moines river, but in a few instances west of it. Groups of mounds are found along Iowa river, in Johnson county, presenting the same general appearance with those in the States east of the Mississippi. Near the mouth of this river, in Louisa county, are the remains of an ancient fortification, with a number of mounds in the same vicinity, which have attracted the attention of the curious. In the vicinity of Ottumwa, Wapello county, are a large number of mounds, several of which have been examined. There is a chain of them in this last named county, commencing near the mouth of Sugar Creek, a small tributary of the Des Moines, and extending twelve miles nortward, with distances between them in some instances as great as two miles. Two of them were excavated several years ago. One of them was about 45 feet in diameter, and situated upon the highest ground in the vicinity. The other was directly

north about one-fourth of a inile. Its diameter at the base was about 75 feet. In the center of this last named mound, was found, at the depth of four feet, a layer of stone, with the appearance of having been subjected to the action of fire. There were also found a mass of charcoal, a bed of ashes, and calcined human bones. A number of relics were also found in the smaller mound first mentioned. These examinations were made by several gentlemen of Ottumwa.

Mr. F. C. Roberts, in a Fort Madison paper, writes of the examination of a mound situated about six miles north of that city, a few years ago. It is located on the brow of a hill, is of an elliptical shape, and small in size, being only about 30 feet long, and fifteen feet wide; its height was about six feet. The mound contained a number of separate compartments, constructed as follows: First, there was a floor made of limestone, which must have been brought a distance of several miles, as none nearer could have been obtained. This floor was laid regular and smooth, the best stone only being used. Above the floor, with an intervening space of about twenty inches, there was a roof, also made of limestone. The sides of this vault, if it may so be called, seemed to have once had stone walls, but they were more or less caved in. It was also thought that the roof had originally been much higher. The compartments were made by partitions or walls of stone. Each compartment was occupied by a human skeleton, and articles of flint and stone, as well as some bones of animals. All the skeletons of human origin were placed in a sitting position, with the knees drawn up, and the head inclined forward between them. The arms were placed by the side, and sometimes clasped around the knees. Besides the human bones, there were those of some large birds and of some animal. Some of these were charred, and were found in connection with charcoal and ashes. There were numerous flint weapons, and small three cornered stones.

In Clayton and other counties in the northeastern part of the State, the Mound Builders have left numerous monuments of their existence in that region in pre-historic times. The researches of Hon. Samuel Murdock, of Clayton county, have been extensive and successful in giving to the scientific and antiquarian world much information in relation to these works of an ancient people who once occupied our continent. He has collected a vast number of relics from the mounds in that portion of the State. After long and thorough investigation, he gives it as his opinion that in Clayton county alone there are not less than one hundred thousand artificial mounds, including the two classes, the round and the elongated, the latter ranging from one hundred to six hundred feet in length. All of them, so far as examinations have been made, contain more or less skeletons. One which was examined near Clayton was estimated to have contained over one hundred bodies. From investigations made, the inference is drawn that the elongated mounds are of greater antiquity than the round ones. The skeletons found in the former are in a more advanced state of decay, and in some of them there is scarcely any trace of bones. In nearly all the round mounds skeletons were found in a remarkably good state of preservation, and can be obtained by the thousand. These facts indicate most conclusively that the elongated mounds were the work of an older race of the Mound Builders, and that they were erected ages before the round ones were. The fact that human remains have been found in nearly all of both classes favors the theory that they were erected as receptacles for the dead.

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While workmen were excavating a mound for the foundation of a warehouse in the city of McGregor, in the summer of 1874, human bones were found, and also a stone axe weighing thirteen pounds. It was embedded twenty feet below the original surface.

As stated, the work of the Mound Builders was not confined to that portion of the State embracing the Mississippi drainage. Similar remains, though not so numerous, are observed on the western slope of the water-shed between the two great rivers bordering the State. Some five miles below Denison, Crawford county, in the valley of Boyer river, there is a semi-circular group of artificial mounds. They are situated on a plateau, rising above the first, or lower bottom, and are about nine in number, each rising to a height of from five to six feet above the general level of the ground. Another similar group is located on a second bottom, at the mouth of Paradise creek, in the same county. Human remains have been found in some of them.

Having noticed briefly some of the various forms in which these stupendous works of men who lived far back in the centuries, whose annals have not come down to us in any written language, we can say now that the most learned have only been able to conjecture as to the remoteness of their antiquity. The evidences that they are of very great age are abundant and conclusive, but how many hundreds or thousands of years? This is the problem that many an antiquary would freely give years of study and investigation to solve. The length of time which elapsed during which these works were in progesss is another of the unsolved questions connected with them, and yet there is abundant evidence that some of them are much older than others; that the process of their construction extends over a large duration of time-a time during which the Mound Builders themselves passed through the changes which mark the monuments that they have left behind them. It is a well known fact that the manners and customs of rude nations isolated from intercourse and commerce with the world, pass through the process of change and development very slowly. The semi-civilized nations of eastern lands, after the lapse of thousands of years, still cling to the manners and customs, and the superstitions of their ancestors, who lived at the early dawn of our historic period. They use the same rude implements of husbandry, the same utensils in the household, the same arms in warfare, and practice the same styles of dress-all with but little change or modification. The changes are only sufficiently marked to be perceptible after many generations have passed away. Situated as the Mound Builders were, we can but infer that they too passed slowly through the processes of change, and the works which they have left behind them thoroughly attest the truth of this proposition. Their older works appear to be more elaborate and more intricate, showing that the earlier workers were possessed of a higher degree of attainment in the mechanical arts than those whose works are more recent. The inference is that probably after long ages, they gradually retrograded, and were finally subdued or driven southward into Mexico and Central America, by the ancestors of the Indians, who came upon them from the northwest, as the Goths and Vandals invaded and subverted the Roman Empire. This final subjugation may have resulted after centuries of warfare, during which time these. fortifications were constructed as defences against the enemy. That they were for military purposes is scarcely susceptible of a doubt. This implies a state of warfare, and war implies an enemy. The struggle ended in the final subjugation of that people to whom

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