Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-08-21

i've SOIL is Incorporated with ma e
nesium which gives the brick made
of it a light-yellow color, almost
white. The mounds are all compos.
ed of soil of a reddish. brown, rich,
very friable, and devoid OF all ex.
tralsous matter, as though it had
been sifted.
Upon the bank of the Crawfish
there remained, some years since
portions of wall of brick made oil
reddish clay, mixed with straw, and
sunburned, like the bricks made by
the lsraelites of old. Portions Of
the wall are now in possession of q
gentleman of Madison.
In the Town of Harrison. the an.
cient camping. ground of Blackhawk
and his tribe. the mounds assume the
form OF turreJs, and of colossal men
At the western section of the town,
the road runs directly across the
figure of a gigantic man, in rer
combeDt attitude, several hundred
feet in length. The etfigies are sup
posed to be significant of the names
of certain "braves."
Explorations of the auimal.shap ed
mounds on the Fox River prove con-
clusively that they were the deposi.
tory of the dead. Human bones
were found with roots and fibers
growing through them, and were
distributed throughout the mounds ;
and it is equally evident the bodies
were laid upon the ground, and earth
heaped upon them. No appearance
of elevation is visible anywhere, nor
are relics found below the altitude
of the surrounding surface. Mr..
Bringer, who describes the mounds
extedding from the Red River to ST.
Louisa distance of 500 miles,
suggests that these are the ruins of
ancient dwellings,, constructed on
the old Mexican plan of largo bricks
covered with earth, which, moulder-
ing down, left these mounds. What
an immense population, he observes,
must have occupied these dwellings,
which cover go large portion of the
Continent
Other antiquarians state that the
square and pyramidal mounds occur
most frequently at the South, and
that there is material difference in
the construction of mounds in Geor-
gia and Florida from those of Ohio
and Kentucky.
The Carlisle (Ky.) Mercury, of re-
cent date, says that several mounds
were recently explored on the farm
OF Mr.. Harrison Whaley, near Moor
field. Several skulls were found and
other bones, which, from their great
size, must have belonged to a race
far moro gigantic than that which
now lnhauits The earth. Oiay ~ten
sils were found, arrow-heads cut
from the solid rock, also pipes of the
same material. At least Is acres
have a multitude of bones few inch
es below the surface.
The Chattanooga (Tenn.) Union
reports that Mr.. William Staples,
while digging q salt.lick on his farm,
II miles from Kingston, struck a
solid rock of limestone 7 feet below
the surface, and in it a well inches
in diameter, filled with salt water.
Investigating further, he found a
line of salt kettles, or rather remains
of kettles, of stone-ware, 40 in num-
Der, 3 feet in diameter, and 7 feet
below the surface. Growing about
them were oaks and poplars, evil
IDENTIFY two centuries old.
Mr.. Raffenesque states that, in an
ancient walled town near Columbia,
Tenn, are many ruins of houses,
ranging in size from 10 to 20 and
30 feet in diameter, all Of circular
form.
But these relics of lost nation
are not alone confined to the mounds.
There is abundant evidence that the
Lake Superior copper mines were
worked at some far.distant period,
with conclusive indications of q
knowledge of mining as pursued at
the present day. Various tools
were discovered which could not
reasonably be referred to Indian
manufacture stone hammers in
quantity equal 20 ten cart-loads,
made of green-ttone or porphyry>
pebble, with single and double
grooves, by which a withe was at
tached copper CAD with battered
head; copper chisel with socket for
handle copper knife; fragments of
wooden bowls for dipping water ;
levers of wood for raising copper to
the surface,-aIl denoting work per.
formed by people of whom there
is neither record nor tradition.
Pits were found IA feet in depth,
extending in continuous line, at
one place II, at another 80 miles +;
and on one mound of earth thrown
out of pit grew hemlock tree 10
feet in circumference. The annular
growth of tree cut from another
mound counted 395 years. Another
pit, on Isle Royale, had been work.
ed through solid rock 9 feet, The
walls being perfectly smooth Is
there any connection between these
mounds and the copper bracelets
found in the mounds Of the Mississ.
ippi ValleyP
Who were these people? Whence
did they come? How did they pass
away, leaving in the bosom of Moth
er Earth only traces of their exist.
ence? Conjecture is fruitless. At
the discovery CD of this Continent
"the mighty oak, by whose immova
bic stem | stand aud seem almost
annihilated," then waved it's green
coronal above their resting place
The Nameless Dead Will this vast
nation, with its countless cities. bC
one day numbered with them ? Ii
the march of ages yet imprisoned in
the womb of time, may not another
race of men stand above our sepul
chres, and speculate upon the sleep
ing dead, as they disentomb rud,
relics of the Standardization of