er there are
no less than 21 mounds. These I identify with the mounds of Red River.
The communication between Red and Rainy River is effected by ascending
the Red Lake River, and coming by portage to a river running from the
south into Rainy River. Both Red and Rainy River easily connect with
the head waters of the Mississippi. Our region then may be regarded as
a self-contained district including the most northerly settlements of
the strange race who built the mounds. I shall try to connect them
with other branches of the same stock, lying further to the east and
south. For convenience I shall speak of the extinct people who
inhabited our special region as the _Takawgamis_, or farthest north
mound builders.

MOUND VARIETIES.

The thirty or forty mounds discovered up to this time in this region
of the Takawgamis have, so far as examined, a uniform structure. Where
stone could be obtained there is found below the surface of the ground
a triple layer of flat limestone blocks, placed in an imbricated
manner over the remains interred. In one mound, at the point where the
Rainy Lake enters the Rainy River, there is a mound situated on the
property of Mr. Pither, Indian agent, in which there was found on
excavation, a structure of logs some 10 feet square, and from six to
eight feet high. In all the others yet opened the structure has been
simply of earth of various kinds heaped together. It is possible that
the mound containing the log erection may have been for sacrifice, for
the logs are found to have been charred. One purpose of all the mounds
of the Takawgamis was evidently sepulture; and in them all, charcoal
lumps, calcined bones and other evidences of fire are found. It would
seem from their position that all the mounds of this region were for
the purpose of observation as well as sepulture. The two purposes in
no way antagonize. For the better understanding of the whole I have
selected the largest mound of the Takawgamis yet discovered, and will
describe it more minutely.

THE GRAND MOUND.

It is situated on the Rainy River, about 20 miles from the head of
Rainy River. It stands on a point of land where the Missachappa or
Bowstring River and the Rainy River join. There is a dense forest
covering the river bank where the mound is found. The owner of the
land has made a small clearing, which now shows the mound to some
extent to one standing on the deck of a steamer passing on the river.
The distance back from th