Young folks' history of the United States . ty feet high, or even ninety, with steps cut inthe earth upon one side, leading up to the top, whichis flat, and sometimes includes from one to five acresof ground. These mounds are scattered all down the valley ofthe Mississippi, and along many of its tributary are thousands of them, large or small, within thesingle State of Ohio. They are not made of earth alone,for some of them show brick-work and stone-work hereand there, though earth is always the chief of them have chambers within, and the remainsof wooden walls; and
Young folks' history of the United States . ty feet high, or even ninety, with steps cut inthe earth upon one side, leading up to the top, whichis flat, and sometimes includes from one to five acresof ground. These mounds are scattered all down the valley ofthe Mississippi, and along many of its tributary are thousands of them, large or small, within thesingle State of Ohio. They are not made of earth alone,for some of them show brick-work and stone-work hereand there, though earth is always the chief of them have chambers within, and the remainsof wooden walls; and sometimes charred wood isfound on top, as if fires had been kindled there. This THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 7 fact is very important, as it helps us to understand thepurpose of the higher mounds; for in Central America Mounds inthere are similar mounds, except that those have on America,their tops the remains of stone temples and palaces. Soit is supposed that the higher mounds of the MississippiValley may have been built for purposes of worship;. THE HOPETON WORKS, IN OHIO. and that, although their summits are now bare, yet thecharred wood may be the remains of sacrificial fires, orof wooden temples that were burned long ago. It is certain that these Mound-Builders were in some Engineer,ways well advanced in civilization. All their earth-works show more or less of engineerirg skill. They ing skill. YOUNG FOLKS UNITED STATES. Shapeof themounds. vary greatly in shape : they show the square, the circle,the octagon, the ellipse; and sometimes all these fig-ures are combined in one series of works. But thecircle is always a true circle, and the square a truesquare; and, moreover, there are many squares thatmeasure exactly one thousand and eighty feet on a side,and this shows that the Mound-Builders had some defi-nite standard of measurement.
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