The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-08-20
From the Charleston News.
THE MOUND-BUILDERS OF THE MISS
ISSIPPl RIVER.

The June number of the Southern Magazine
contains suggestive article on "The Arch@-
illogical Aspects of the Lowlands of the
Mississippi" written by Colonel Louis j..
DuPre, OF Memphis. In this article it is
shown that. so long as the system of con-
tinuous levees along the Mississippi is per-
severed in, the inevitable oyerhowe will
be more sudden and the crevasses more dis
astrous. Unless there be drains or canals,
by which the swollen waters can run off. the
river will at last break through or rise over
its banks, exposing the whole Mississippi
valley, season after season, to losses such as
Congress to save thousands of refugees from
perishihg by starvation. The mound bull iers,
who have left traces of their handiwork
along the shores of the Father Of Waters
excavated canal, one hundred feet wide,
from point just below Cape Crardeau to
the headwaters of the White and St. Francis
rivers. Its obvious purpose was the diver
sion of a large volume OF the suoerabundant
water of the Mississippi into smaller tribu
tary streams. At intervals of twenty or
thirty miles are other canals, still plainly
defined, parallel with the first and designed
to render overhows harmless. These canals
also solved tor the mound builders the
problem of cheap transportation. They
were to wise to aid the river in upheaving
Its banks, as is done in these later days OF
less knowledge. The system OF drainage
which they adopted forty centuries ago Is
in Colonel DdPre's oplrion, the only one
that now can be safely adopted. But more
can be said of the mound>bulders than thai
they built drains and canals. Not far from
Osceola, Ark, the brick abutments OF
bridge have been unearthed. In many places
there are artificial lakes paved with adobe
Instead of leveeing their farms the mound
, builders raised them aoove the high waite
mark.
Very few OF the mounds which give thei
name to the extinct race of highly civilized
+ Americans have been explored but cope
: and bronze implements, urns and vases o
terra Gotta, and in one instance an idol o
g bronze have been found. Whence cam
. these people whose defensive earthwork
are found on the Mississippi, beginning at
j poiDt seventy miles above Memphis Their
are earthen walls defining pa-allelogram
and bitches, AMI circular forts and Ion!
defensive lines. From these it is surmlse'
the mound -buildeis were driven back until
the final struggle for existence, which too
II place five miles above che confluence Q
. Little Red and White rivers. A broad dee
. ditch connects the two streams, and burle
within, it is said, are myriads of skeletons
There was no survivor. The silence @
oblivion swept over them and their houses
Colonel DuPre has been engaged for year
IND. determine wRo and what tn
:. CATION and comparison, and by a persona
examination of the mounds, and of the eitie
and remains of Notifications, canals, farm
p and the like, he has obtained a fund o
information, which, with his theories con
cerEing the lost race is in course of prepare.
ton for the press. 1t would be difficult
to find subject of greater interest, even il
these utilitarian times, than tie tracing out
OF the history of an American people who
| rose to eminence and passed away thousands
of years ago.