umulus consists of black mould, with occasional spots of yellowish clay. The difference between the artificial and natural soil was quite apparent. No articles [page 29:] of ornament or use, indicating any commerce with the white race, were discovered; and we are led to the conclusion that the mound was erected before the discovery of the country. The position of the skeleton, and other indications, show conclusively that no disturbance had taken place since the interment, and that the articles obtained were the original deposits. The skeleton was, without doubt, that of the personage for whom the mound was erected.
In .one of the vases at the head of the skeleton were the remains of a shell, apparently the Unio siliquoides, a very common species in the rivers and lakes of Wisconsin. These shells are often used for spoons; and this vase probably contained a supply of food for the departed while on the journey to the spirit-land.
It is impossible to estimate, with any degree of precision, the length of time that human bones may have remained when placed two feet in the earth, and covered with a mound still retaining an elevation of four feet; but it is certain that all traces of them would be gone in a few centuries, unless they were longer preserved by peculiar circumstances. The skeletons found here were, as before stated, very much decayed; but it is believed that their antiquity could not be very great. Roots of trees had penetrated to the bones, and drawn nourishment from their mouldering remains, thus hastening their decay; and their depth (four and six feet) below the top of the mound, was not so great as to exclude entirely the effects of moisture, especially in wet seasons. It is true, the hard layer of earth and the covering of stone had a preservative influence; but, upon the whole, it is not probable that these mounds have an antiquity of many hundred years.
It is clear, then, that this was one of the latest works of the mound-builders; one that connects them with the present race of Indians; and yet its origin is, without doubt, anterior to the discovery of America. The pipes, the red paint, and the pottery, are so many circumstances connecting this mound with the recent race; while the tumulus itself is a relic of the more ancient one of the mound-builders. The progress of discovery seems constantly to diminish the distinction between the ancient and modern races; and it may not be very wide of the truth to assert that they were the same people.
It is not strange that changes should, from time to time, take place in the character and habits of a people so rude and so little advanced in civilization. Different tribes have different habits; and a stronger one may have overrun and swallowed up a weaker, and thus changed its customs and destroyed its institutions. In this way, the mode of burial, and even the religious ceremonies, may be altered; those of the conquerors being substituted for those of the conquered. History records many such events. The inhabitants of Egypt have ceased to build pyramids and sphinxes; the Greeks have ceased to erect temples: and yet, we have reason to believe that their descendants occupy the same countries. Is it more strange that the ancestors of the present Indians should have erected mounds of earth, than that the aboriginals of any country should have had habits different from their posterity? We need not, therefore, look to Mexico, or any other country, for the descendants of the mound-builders. We probably see them in the present red race of the same or adjacent regions.
Since the red men have become known to us, numerous tribes have been ex- [page 30:] tinguished, with all their peculiar customs and institutions; yet, as a whole, the Indian remains. Many tribes have been overrun by others, and have united with them as one people. Migrations have taken place; one tribe acquiring sufficient power has taken possession of lands belonging to another, and maintained its possession. In the course of these revolutions it is not strange that habits and practices, once prevalent in 