Title:  Mound-Builders

Author:  William J. Smyth

Release Date:  March 12, 2006 [EBook #17969]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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MOUND-BUILDERS

BY

Rev.  W. J. Smyth, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D.

Pastor of St. Joseph Street Presbyterian Church, Montreal.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, TORONTO.

Montreal: 
Gazette printing company. 
April, 1886.

MOUND-BUILDERS

By Rev.  William J. Smyth, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D.

When the early settlers began to pioneer the unbroken forests of North America, they considered the various Indian tribes to be the true Aborigines of this continent.  But long before the red man, even long before the growth of the present forests, there lived an ancient race, whose origin and fate are surrounded with impenetrable darkness.  The remains of their habitations, temples and tombs, are the only voices that tell us of their existence.  Over broad areas, in the most fertile valleys, and along the numerous tributaries of the great rivers of the central and western portions of the United States, are to be found these wonderful remains, of the existence and origin of which, even the oldest red man could give no history.

Following in the track of these ancient tumuli, which have been raised with some degree of order and sagacity, we are bound to believe that they were constructed by a very intelligent and somewhat civilized race, who during long periods enjoyed the blessings of peace, but like most nations of the earth, at times were plunged in the horrors of war.  We cannot tell by what name these strange people were known during their existence.  But archaeologists, to keep themselves safe, have given them the name of “Mound-builders,” from the nature of the structures left behind them.

Of this wonderful, semi-civilized, prehistoric race, we have no written testimony.  Their mysterious enclosures, implements of war, and comparatively impregnable fortifications, together with a few strange tablets, are the only evidence of their character, civilization, and doom.  No contemporary race, if such there existed on this continent, has left any record of them.

The mounds they have left are found in the western part of the State of New York, and extend, it is said, as far as Nebraska.  And as they have lately been found in the Northwest, they have thus a much more northern limit than was at first thought, while the southern limit is the Gulf of Mexico.