Morning journal and courier., 1893-05-30

of petrifed wood, covering the summit of
q mound one and half acres In area.
Samples of the pavement were brought
yesterday to the News by D. II. Garvin, of
Cleveland, O., who made the following
statement regarding the discovery: "The
mound is sixty feet high, square-shspsd,
and with sloping sides. 1t was looked
upon as an ordinary clay structure until q
short time ago, when in digging the soil
on the summit, which Is level and meas
ures an acre and half, q petrihsd pave
ment was struck under what appeared to
be q shallow deposit of drift. Further
explorations showed that the entire sum-
init of the mound was paved. The petri-
fed blocks were laid on end as oompsotly
as Nicholson pavement. In plsces the
pavement Is perfectly smooth, while In
other places, owing to the depression that
the soil has undergone during the sges, 1t
is irregular. The mound, which was con-
struoted with mathematical precision, also
contains some blocks of stone that seem to
have been used In g building"
'fFhe samples of the pavement are four
inches long, and undoubtedly are petrified
wood. Three inches of their length lie sill
lea and the remsiufug inch, measuring to
This combination, which is not uncommon
In petrifsctions, shows that the pavement
was probably set In sillcious sand and that
the upper part was subjected to the action
of water containing lime in solution. The
blocks give evidence of having been split
by q sharp instrument and sawed at the
upper surface. While thousands of
mounds have been discovered on this con-
tinent, this is the only one In which,
through the sgenoy of petrifsction, nature
has embalmed an evidence of q place in
civilization occupied by the mound build
ers far In advance of what had been ac-
corded them by sntiqusrisns. That this
mysterious race praoticed the arts of sgri-
culture is proven by the fac; that mounds
are 60 close together in some districts as
to have rendered IL impossible for their
occupants to have subsisled by fishing and
hunting; and that those inhabitants en-
gagged In mining and commerce is proven
by the discovery iu Peruvian mounds of
Lake Superior copper; but, although cop
per chisels, rimmsra and indsnted knives
Chat might have been used as sswsl have
been found in mounds, there never was
any proof that the mound builders were
wood workers until this discovery in Wise
county Wood being an article that time
destroys, all it's evidences of the home life
of the mound builders must necessarily
have long since been obliterated, except
where preserved by the agency of petri-
faction. While THE sgency in the Wise
county mound hiss only preserved a beau
tiful pavement, 1t may b. inferred that a
people sufficiently advanced TO execute g
work that in recent years has immortal
izsd Nicholson in the annals of street en-
pineering We're capable of raising hand
come wooden temples sud other struc
tures. That they were not of the same
race as the Indians appears from the fsct
that the lstter have no tradition concern
ing the origin of mounds, and were shey
the original mound builders, though their
civilization subsequently perished, they
could not have lost track of euch an i'm
portant part Of the history of their rsce-"