in favorable localities, or are massive
in construction, that are left for our inspection. But these nearly
obliterated records of the past are of more than passing interest to us
as monuments of the prehistoric times of our own country. We wander over
these ruins and find much to interest us, much to excite our curiosity.
The purposes of many are utterly unknown. Some, by their great
proportions, awaken in us feelings of admiration for the perseverance
and energy of their builders. But when we investigate the objects of
stone, of clay, and of copper this people left behind them, we notice
how hard it is to draw a dividing line between them and the Indians.

In fact, there is no good reason for separating them from the Indian
race as a whole. We do not mean to say that they were not, in many
respects, different from the tribes found in the same section of the
country by the early explorers, though, we ought, perhaps, to confine
this remark to the central portion of the country occupied by these
ancient remains. But the American of to-day differs from the American of
early Colonial times. The miserable natives of Southern California were
Indians, but very different indeed from the ambitious, warlike Iroquois,
who displayed so much statesmanship in the formation of their celebrated
league. In another chapter we shall discuss this part of our subject, as
well as the question of the antiquity of the ruins.

REFERENCES

(1) The manuscript of this chapter was submitted to Prof. F. W.
Putnam, curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard University, for criticism.
(2) Conant's "Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 122.
(3) Force: "Some Considerations on the Mound Builders," p. 64;
"Am. Antiquarian," March, 1884, pp. 93-4; "10th Annual Report,
Peabody Museum," p. 11.
(4) Short's "North Americans of Antiquity", p. 28.
(5) Squier and Davis's "Ancient Monuments," p. 105.
(6) Foster's "Prehistoric Paces," p. 148.
(7) Squier's "Aboriginal Monuments of New York," Smithsonia
Contribution No. 11, p. 83.
(8) Squier's "Aboriginal Monuments of New York," Smithsonia
Contribution No. 11, p. 87.
(9) Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 121.
(10) "They are numbered by millions." Ibid.
(11) Prof. Forshey could frame no satisfactory hypothesis of
their origin. Ibid, p. 122.
(12) "Native Races," Vol. IV, pp. 739 and 740.
(1