Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-10-02
THE MOUNDS.
Il Great Mystery sOlred at last. The Mound
Builders ChimericaI. 4 Beautiful
Theory spoiled. Ind a part of
History ShOrne of its Magic
and Romantic Charms.

| LHOoO iHOuiluS dt0 IOutiu III dItuOSt
every part of America, mainly in the
great valley of the Mississippi, also
in Texas, Mexico, and in South Amer
lea; but | will only speak of those
found in the United States. I do not
affirm that the Pyramid builders did
not build any earth works in America;
but I do affirm thev did not build the
mounds of which ] am speaking. That
| there are traces of former occu-
pancy Of America by man, / am aware
of, but, am talking only of mounds.
| The works of nature and the works of
art do notmerge into each other as do
the different shades of colors, the hues
of the rainbow Or light and darkness,
or the four seasons of the year But
their limits are clearly defnable and no
one need mistake the one for the other.
We cannot be at a loss at this partlcu-
lar point amid ali the objects around us.
Every work of human origin shows
marks and traces of human skill and
labor. The Rosetta stone found in
Egypt in 1899 was as readily known to
have passed through human hands, as
that the nummuities there are known
to oe the product of geological agencies.
The Pyramids of Egypt, though it is
unknown, when, for what purpose, or
by whom built, yet we kno " just as well
that they were built by man as if we
had been there and seen LUCE piles
going up. Those pillars found In des-
olate places in the old world are known
to have been SO formed by man. If
every Chinaman had died before civili-
zation dawned upon the western world
and no account of that people Or
land had ever been known, still If
party Of explorers passing over that
land of desolation had come upon
the Chinese wall, all would pro-
nounce it the work of man, because
nature does not work in that way.
On the south coast of Wales, washed
by the Bristol Channel, is a pile os
boulders about two miles long and
about three hundred yards wide. They
are filled in order, one upon the other,
tudII IuC tAuCo "CIO W
rise. These boulders are round, worn
smooth by friction, and piled in this
marvellous way as though put there
for break water, for which they serve.
Yet no one believes this to be the
work of man though comparative order,
width and regularity characterize it's
whole general ontline. The stonehenge
or the plains of Salisbury, England,
which consists of twelvestones, of which
nothing is known but the fact of their ex-
is ten, e and order, are known to be the
result Of human labor and skill, just as
welland readily as they had been placed
there in the memory Of man, Fingal's
Cave, near tie west coast Of Scotland,
wonderful in its structural formation,
though in many parts like mans work
is well known to be so formed by geo
ogical agencies in the past. A petri-
fed fossil is as readily known to be
produced by geological, chemical agen-
cies, as that a vast pile of broken rocks
is known to be produced by geological,
mechanical, agencies. No one ever took
even the rudest Indian arrow head,
though found amid million of small
stones fora naturally worn rock, nor the
smoothest pebble found to be human
polished stone. | have cited these in
stances to impress the fact that the
works of art and the works of nature are
clearly definable. But here is clss OF
works, the mounds which do not show
single trace of human skill, and hui
man design, and still we presist in say
ing they were built by some unknown
race of people. The only two reasons
that can imagine why these mounds
have been ascribed to human agencies
are these: First because we have here
tofore known absolutely nothing of
their origin, and, second, their close re-
semblance to the old potato and tobacco
hills OF our forefathers, which hills
were known to be made. / am some
times almost led to believe that much
that is called science consists more of
telling what one does not know, and
what cannot be shown to be either true
or false reason or analogy, than by
sgstematizing facts that are known and
from establishing theories and drawing
logical deductions. The mounds and
hills and mountains in mound shape
were here when the whites first came to
America, and here they are today, just
as they were then, where they have
been unmolested. The Indians knew
nothing of them then. No Indian tribe
could give any account of their origin,
simply because the mounds were
mounds, before the Indians was Indian.
The historian could tell nothing of
their origin, because the mounds
were mounds before history, and for
ought I know, and as I believe, the
mounds were mounds before man was
man. Their origin is not to look for in
traditions, or in history or in books, or
even in the mound themselves, but un-
der the mounds. Many of the mounds
in various parts of the country have
been examined-dng into, but none
have ever been dug under. Strange
this has never been thought of. In some
of the mounds have been found, relics,
culiosities Of Indian origin and make.
Perhap the nation before the Indians,
whoever they were, may have de-
posted in the mounds many of their
tools of husbandry; hunting and