Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-07-27

Circles, anu lOOk Ike SlgaQtlc SeOmeIfl
cal figures. The stone forts are larger
still The walls Of fort Ancient are
still 20 feet high and three miles and
a half in length, enclosing u space of
40 acres.
An immense number of relics have
been collected by various explorers.
Few, perhaps, are OF greater interest
tnan those lately taken from Il mound
on PAINT creek. AT the base of the
Cuinulua, Which WAS 800 feet long, were
dOmed chambers, four or fke feet high.
La one OF these was a skeleton, evi-
IDENTITY of some distinguished warrior
On it's head, fastened to a sort Of he'll
met, were wooden antlerS, covered
with copper. Over it were strewn
| pealS, bears teeth, and claws of eagles
At its side lay pipe, an agate spear
head, and canes covered with copper
Other skeletons in the same mound
were clad in copper armOr, decorated
with elaborate and beautiful designs
Here, too, was found a copper aX,-
still sharp, 10 pounds in weight, and
| bearing traces of gliding. In a burial
mound on the Iowa river, in a district
which was inhabited by hunter tribes,
were found three chambers, rooted
with logs and in the center room eight
skeletons were seated on the floor
each with a drinking-cup at it's feet
In a mound on the SciOto rivera
huge tumulus 160 feet long and 90
feet Wide-Were II chambers, each
containing Il skeleton. A remarka BILE
point is the size Of the tree which are
sometimes found in these old works
Some were felled in Ohio which have
| been growing for five centuries on the
| lOng-deSerted rampartS Of an old fort
One tree that grew on the wall Of
! fort in Ohio had $3.50 rings in it, This
does not It is true, imply a really high
degree of antiquity; but there seems
no reason to doubt that the early
mound-builders We're contemporary
with the maStOdOn, if not with the
mammoth. Many pipes have been
| found which clearly represent the lat
ter; while remains of the former have
been found so recent that the turf-cut-
ters creased their boots with the mar
row taken from the bones. Among
/ the bones Of a mastOdOn dug up in
Missouri were discovered the arrow,
heads, which, as it lay helpless in the
bog, had been shot at it by hunters.
Near it were the stones they had
hurled at it, while the ashes Of fires
they had lighted round the carcase
We're still heaped against it six feet
high.
Much excitement was caused in 1866
by the discovery of what is known as
the Calaveras skull, at a depth Of 100
feet below the surface, on the western
slope of the Sierra Nevada,-a cleal
proof, as it was at first thought of the
vast antiquity of man on the Ameri-
can continent Almost more eXtraOr-
binary was the "Napa image" Il tiny
figure of a man of baked clay, that
came up in a sand-pump from depth
of no less than 800 feet. 1t is now
recognized that the skull owed its
burial to Accommodations of fool debris,
and that the clay figure came from an
unsupported Indian mine. Two very
remarkable stone slabs, called the
Davenport tablets, which it is said
were dug up in Missouri, were inscrib-
ed, one with Il cremation scene, in
Guiding 80 figures Of men and animals,
and the other with notwithstanding
characters. Many of these characters,
are now seen to be taken from the
Roman, Arabic Phoenician and Hebrew
alphabets, and both tablets are re-
garded as spurious
The civilization of the mound
builders was at one time thought to
have been equal to that of Tyre OF
Babylon or Egypt. 1t was even con-
fidently asserted that here were the
relics of the 10 Lost tribes,'-a sug.
gestion we may well remember, since
out of it grew the gigantic imposture,
the "Book of Mormon" It must
however, be admitted that there are
points in tie work of the mound-build-
ers in their effigies and pyramids and
sacred Enclosures" which strongly
support the view that America was at
some remote period visited by success
sive waves of invaders from Euope,
from the coast of Asia, even from Mon
gOlla. RIIeS SUCH DIS prevailed III
PhOenicia in Old Testament times were
widely practiced on the North Ameri-
can continent. The more closely the
relics of the lost races are examined,
the more clear becomes the evidence
that their worship combined elements
of Druidical, Of Hittite, and Of Phoeni-
clan ceremonial.
The faiths of the far east, the wor-
ship Of fire, of the serpent, and of the
sun, extensively prevailed throughout
the whole erea occupied by the mound
| builders Their relics abound with
symbols which, in the old world, ''be-
/ longed to the secret mysteries, the
mysteries which were so full Of cruel
| ties and degradations." 1t is here,
then, among objects associated with
! their religious Observances, that we
must look for the key to this great
! problem,-the problem as to who were
! this strange people, and from what
sources the North American continent
received the first impulses Of it's an
cient civilization.