e heights, whether three or four sides, being always equal to the
height of the central mound.<81> We do not know of any specimen of
this class of works now existing. If this early explorer's account be
reliable, then we have in works of this class very good evidence that
some of their inclosures were in the nature of sacred inclosures. The
trouble is to verify Mr. Pidgeon's account. There is a good deal that
is strange and marvelous in reference to the Mound Builders, and we
must use judgment as to what is told us, unless we are sure there is no
mistake, or unless the reports are vouched for by many observers.

We wish to call attention to some singular works in Missouri, which
would imply that the Mound Builders were possessed of no little
engineering skill. We have every indication that near New Madrid was a
very extensive settlement. The works consist of inclosures, large and
small mounds in great numbers, and countless residence sites. One of
fifty acres was noticed, which had evidently been inclosed by earthen
walls. In some places in the forest, where this wall had been preserved,
its height was found to be from three to five feet, and its base width
fifteen feet.<82> But the suggestive features about these works are
noticed along the edge of the swamp near which they stood. This swamp in
1811 was a lake, with a clear, sandy bottom. It is not at all doubted
but that it was at one time the bed of the Mississippi River, and
probably this town stood on its banks. The river is now some eighteen
miles away. It must suddenly have changed its course, leaving behind it
a lake, which, in course of time, became a swamp.

But along the shores of this ancient lake, in front of the inclosure,
small tongues of land have been carried out into the water, from fifteen
to thirty feet in length, by ten, or fifteen in width, with open spaces
between, which, small as they are, forcibly remind one of the wharfs of
a seaport town. The cypress trees grew very thickly in all the little
bays thus formed, and the irregular, yet methodical, outlines of the
forest, winding in and out close to the shore of these tongues of land,
is so marked as to remove all doubt as to their artificial origin.<83>
The suggestion is made in view of these wharfs, that the Mound Builders
must have had some sort of boats to navigate the waters of the lake.

And the singular part is, that right in this neighborhood are many
evidences of a system of canals. A gla