The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-03-24
Prehistoric Footsteps,

Oregon, the Arcadia for the red man,
rich in minerals and fertile in soil, held
numerous population of aborigines
who still hourished when the white man
set foot within its borders. They dwelt
near the rivers and the shore of the
ocean, were warlike and primitive, float
ell their canoes upon the streams and
lived their wild life undisturbed. Less
than century has swept them into obli-
Won, leaving only few bleached bones,
few stone idols, and few implements
of warfare and domestic use. No earth
works, nor temples, houses, nor pottery
remain. Yet tradition and the great
shell beds prove that numerically these
people were strong. Thinking of their
sudden extinction, we may well wonder
ut the brevity of human life and the effac-
ing power of time, who passes his hand
over a race and it disappears like
figures under sponge. These people
worshiped, for they have left their
idols. They ioyed, soTowed and loved
in their rude way, and now there remains
of them only a few feeble creatures in
the lowest scale Of humanity.
Then there are the mound builders, of
Ohio, that curious race long departed,
who left their earthworls to puzzle
civilized people. One writer describes
the observatory mounds as forming
chain of signal stations so located as to
communicate across the country from
valley to valley. They are built upon
the highest hilltops, and undoubtedly
served the people who built them as
telegaphs whose messages were beacon
| lights. Inside these mounds is an arch
of clay and stone and an altar. These
and some flint implements are all that
remain of those vanished tribes. That
they leaned toward civilization, and had
| a certain form of government is theory
not unsupported by the traces they have
left. They titled the soil and cultivated
art in figures sculptured from the hardest
stone.
| Another race was contemporaneous
with the mound builders. They were
agricultural and ingenious, and they
wrote their history for us in curious pot
terry. Earthen vessels shaped like tor
toises, shells, fish and birds are found in
the pottery mounds in Missouri. They
carved stone with great skill, too. HUI
man heads of almost Grecian beauty
adorn many of their works. They, too,
suddenly disappeared, leaving behind
them wonderful record in stone and
pottery. All that remains of their pa
tience, industry and skill are found in
their mounds, graves, and in the relics
scattered about the vicinity of the habi-
tations. What wind of fate swept them
out of existence is not yet known.
Near Joliet, Illinois, row OF human
skeletons with copper ear ornaments be-
side them were found recently, and sew
eral sections of Minnesota send news OF
similar discoveries. One mound revealed
six hundred skeletons, supposed to be
the remains of Indian braves slain in q
battle which tradition says took place
several centuries ago between the Chip
pewas and Sioux, the former winning the
day.
Everywhere over the earth lie buried
the tribes and races that fourished be
fore history was, and before civilization
l began. How limitless is the store o
| facts the silent earth holds hidden il
her bosom Ages pass and races perisl
4 yet she loses not the record of either
Under her fresh and smiling face, gree
0 with verdure and bright with flowers, al
+ the tombs of the centuries. Wonderfr
s are the forces of nature, the laws ,
n change. Who can contemplate ii
p mighty evolution of the universe and n,
e feel the egotism of his soul grow less, ar
+, ar in fancy the tramp of the army
race in their march toward oblivion