The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-04-20

Upton County, Tenn. These mounds
are not of large size, except in one or two
instances, but on some other accounts
they possess an interest which does not
often attach to these memorials of an ex-
tinct race. The first is situated some
three or four miles to the southwest of
Mason's depot, on ridge dividing the
waters of the East Beaver from those Of
the Middle Beaver creeks. There are
about eleven Of these mounds in the group,
but they are of the small conical sort, and
wonld not be likely to attract very much
attention from the casual observer.
About ten miles a little south of west
from the first-named group on the margin
of a small stream, an atfiuent of the West
Beaver, there is another group of mounds
somewhat larger than those above de.
scribed. Those mounds are pyramidal,
and some of them are of large size. They
are evidently very ancient works. On
one of these, which was about ten feet
high above the surrounding level, about
300 feet long and 200 feet wide, DIR. Chris
ef0kffeH Intermediary aTlH rasidted. hayiDg
residence.
Between these two groups there is
dense cypress brake Situated in the marshy
basin of the Middle Beaver Creek. This
cypress swamp covers an area of about
one and a half square miles. Extending
across this swamp, in precisely an airline
direction between the two groups OF
mounds, is a sort of levee, raised even yet
two or three feet above the marshy lard
through which it passes. This ancient
roadway is straight as line, cutting the
swamp directly through for the distance
of more than mile. From this fact there
can be no doubt that the Mound builders
knew how to run lines and build roads.
Col. Louis j. Dupree, editor of the Aus
tin (Texas) Statesman, has given much
attention to the subject of the archaeology
of the Mississippi Valley, and his observa-
ticns contributed to Appleton's Journal
and to the Southern Magaztne are of no
small value. Col. Dupree has personally
examined many Of the remains of the
Mound builders found in the valley, and
he has traced a welldefned line of defen
sive works, extending from the st. Francis
to the White River, across the country in
Arkansas He finds evidence that
mighty struggle once took place in the
valley of the Upper White River between
the Mound builders, who had been grad
ually pressed back by the hordes of bar
barians from the North, and had made
their final stand, met with an overwhelm-
ing overthrow and were destroyed or
forced to fee 1t was the Armageddon of
the Mound builders, and we are assured
that vast field of human bones yet exists
in that region.
The character of the works examined
by Dupree 90 to prove that the Mound
builders knew the art of defensive con
structlon Prof Edward Fontaine in his
work "How the World was Peopled,"
goes further, and expresses the opinion
hat the bayou system of the Southern
valley was once utilized for purposes of
transportation that the levees TO prevent
inundations built by the Mound builders
may still be traced along the Mississippi
and Yazoo Rivers south of Memphis, and,
finally, that these people well understood
the physics apd hydraulics of the Missis-
sippi River These remains of their work
prove that among the Mound-builders
there were engineers of no small ability
the Capt. Eadses of their era.
We may thus infer from an examination
of the situation of the mounds, whether
erected for sacred purposes as outlooks or
as works of defense, showing admirable
engineering SKILL and from tracing the
highways and levees which they con-
structed, that the Mound builders were
not destitute of the higher faculties OF
constructive art. They may have had
bridges and handsome boats, hut time has
obliterated every trace OF these perishable
things.-St. Louis Republican.