e creek. On a subsequent
visit to this place, I found the people using the clay from the wall of
the square inclosure for making brick, and streets had been cut across
the circular inclosure, so that the city is no longer entitled to the
name of Circleville. In many instances, the ruined cities of Central
America have inclosures resembling those at Circleville, surrounding the
Teocallis, or sacred temples, which almost invariably stand upon mounds,
or, as they are commonly called, pyramids.

With these many points of resemblance, the conclusion is irresistible,
that the mounds of the West were but the germs of the more symmetrical
pyramids of Mexico and Central America, and that the people who
constructed them were, in intelligence and civilization, far in advance
of the roving tribes of North American Indians who inhabited the country
at the time of its discovery.

If it be true, as tradition informs us, that the Toltecs were a
cultivated race, even more advanced than the Aztecs who occupied Mexico
at the time of the Conquest, we may reasonably suppose that a metal so
valuable to them as copper would be in great demand, and that mines of
it, even at a remote distance, would be worked by a people, the
construction of whose religious temples and royal palaces, and, it would
seem, their nationality even, depended upon its possession.

Other evidence might be adduced to show that the extensive mining-pits
on the shores of Lake Superior were not the work of the indolent and
untutored race of Indians who now inhabit that region, nor of their
ancestors, but of a people comparatively well acquainted with the
mechanic arts. Our article, however, has already extended beyond the
limits contemplated. I therefore leave the subject, with the hope that
the few hints here thrown out may awaken other and abler minds to its
investigation.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] See Col. Whittlesey's Report, Vol. XIII. _Smithsonian
Contributions._

TO A POET ON HIS BIRTHDAY,

FEBRUARY 27.

O singer, musical and strong,
Why should a faint and faltering line
Seek through the happy realms of song
To celebrate thy voice divine?

The tribute bears its own reply,
And speaks for many a voiceless one,
Of hearts disburdened of a sigh
Wherever thy brave accents run;

And blessing brings for youthful hours,
When maidens dreamed their early dreams,
And boys awakened, crowned with flowers,