Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1878-07-11
When digging in the

than strangers. When digging in the
mounds, men have found lots OF orna-
ments made OF stone and of copper,
and this copper is such as is found in
the mines OF Lake Superior. There
are evidences that this unknown race
OF men were very different in their
habits from the Indians Columbus
found. The mounds are seen in a
great many OF the States, including
the western part OF New York They
are numerous on the shores or the
Gulf OF Mexico, while IN nearly ALI the
Western States they are found in
great numbers. Some show evidences
of having been used rs places of
burial for the dead, while others we're
built as forts or watch-towers, while
again others were erected as temples
for worship. There is famous one
in Ohio, evidently nsed as place Of
defense, which seems to have been
the Mound Builders Gibraltar. OF
this, Newberry says: "The defenses
consist OF wall OF stone, now in
ruins, carried around the hill a little
below its brow and extending across
the neck which connects the hill with
the range beyond. In a portion OF
the wall are three gate-ways about
eight feet wide; in one place, where
the abruptness OF the hill makes 1t
wholly inaccessible, the wall is dis
continued for some distance. The
space inclosed within is more than
40 acres, while the entire line OF the
Notifications measures about two and
a quarter miles"
Mr.. Newberry describes other forti-
fications in Ohio on the summit OF a
hill 500 feet high: "They are CON-
posed OF mingled earth and stone.
Measured from the. bottom OF the
ditch from which the earth used in
building the embankment has been
excavated. the wall is i'm some places
fifteen feet high. while the average
breadth OF the base is from thirty TO
forty feet. That these Notifications
were constructed several centuries
ago is rendered more than probable
by the fact that q chestnut tree twen-
ty-one feet in circumference was
found growing some years since on
the embankment, and an oak tree
twenty-thres feet in circumference,
though now fallen and much decayed,
had evidently grown upon the earth
of the Notifications
There is another remarkable mound
IN Ohio. 1t is called "The Great
Serpent" the jaws or this serpent are
wide open, as though trying TO swal-
low a figure supposed represent an
egg. This egg is 160 feet long by
eighty feet wide, The embankment
which forms the body is only five or
six feet in height, but is over twenty
feet in breadth at the base. The SER
pent is 700 feet long aud has two or
three coils at the tail.
The Mound Builders evidently lived
thousands OF years ago--so long ago,
In fact, that we don't know much
about them nowadays. Whether or
not they had a written language is a
disdutsd question. From the pottery
and ornaments found in the mounds.
1t is known that the people used 10
trade with each other, but no traces
Of foreign commerce have been dis
covered. IL you wish to find out all
that Is known about Mound Builders,
there are several books published on
the subject, which you can read; bat
while you will find many interesting
particulars, you will be astonished 10
find how few are the traces left by
these strange men by which habits
and customs. together with the age
in which they lived. can be made
KNOWN Christian Union.