omparative philology, and to reconstruct
and connect the links in the broken chain of national affiliation.

Even in our less attractive latitudes and longitudes, a more auspicious
and healthy tone has been given to the spirit of investigation. A voice
from one of our western mounds (which has been alluded to) promises to
restore the reading of an inscription in one of the earliest alphabets
of the world. Sculptures have recently been disclosed in some of the
minor mounds of the West, which are executed in a polished style of
art, and strongly connect the Mexican and American tribes. The figures
of animals and birds, taken from some barrows in the Scioto valley, are
executed in a manner quite equal to anything of the kind found in
Mexico or Peru.

Mythological evidence is also assuming more distinctive grounds. An
imitative mound of a gigantic serpent swallowing an egg, has been
discovered in one of the forest counties of Ohio, while I have been
engaged in penning these remarks. The discovery of this curious
structure, which is coiled for the distance of a quarter of a mile
around a hill, transfers to our soil a striking and characteristic
portion of oriental mythology. Scarcely a season passes, indeed, which
does not add, by the extension of our settlements, or the direct agency
of exploration, to the number of monumental evidences of antique
occupancy.

But were these, indeed, wanting--were there no mounds or pyramids of
sepulture or sacrifice--no remains of art--no inscriptive testimonies
to speak of by-gone centuries--we have before us one of the most
interesting of all monumental proofs in the lost and enigmatical race,
who yet rove the boundless forests of the West and South. Whether there
be evidences to separate the eras and nations of the most ancient
inhabitants from those whose descendants yet remain, is one of the very
points at issue. If the descendants of the mound and temple builders
yet exist, the traditions of the era have passed from them in the
process of their declension. But whoever the builders were, and whether
their blood still flows in the existing race or not, they clung, like
this race, so firmly to their ancient mythology and religion as to
impress it indelibly on the features of their architecture, and in
almost every work or labor which they attempted.

Viewed in every age, the existing tribes have exhibited such a fixity
and peculiarity of character, as to have rendered them at once a