A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders . jeapg(j ^p ^q covcr the dead, or erected to their memory, orset up as monuments where some mysterious rites of incremation,or sacrifice, or worship had been celebrated ; or they marked theformer site of temples or of habitation. The precise object of thebuilders, or how they attained it, can often be only guessed at; butthat there was a purpose
A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders . jeapg(j ^p ^q covcr the dead, or erected to their memory, orset up as monuments where some mysterious rites of incremation,or sacrifice, or worship had been celebrated ; or they marked theformer site of temples or of habitation. The precise object of thebuilders, or how they attained it, can often be only guessed at; butthat there was a purpose connected, in some way, with the civil or 1 Smithsonian Report, Big Elephant Mound. EARTH-WORKS IN MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 23 religious life, or the hostile or the social relations of a very numerouspeople, is evident. But of these works in Wisconsin there is no suchexplanation. It does not seem possible that they could have beenthe foundations either of dwellings or of temples for worship; theycertainly could not have been for defence ; they were rarely places ofsepulture, and no probable conjecture has as yet been advanced thatassigns to them any conceivable human intent. Yet they exist ingreat numbers, scattered over a broad extent of country. They musthave cost a vast deal of labor, and they indicate the presence, whenthey were made, of a large population. In a portion of Wisconsin, as well as in some other places, are foundearthworks of another kind, but quite as remarkable, which, fromtheir supposed use, have been called garden-beds. These are ridges,or beds, about six inches in height and four feet in width, methodicallyarranged in parallel row
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1876
