Year: 1871

Since the result of Governor Aruy's explora-
tions in New Mexico was made public, there has
been no discovery of more interest to the Amer-
cam arch@ologist than the one alleged to have
been made recently in Iowa, on the line of the
projected Dubuque and Minnesota Railroad.
The workmen, while engaged in excavating for
the road, in the limestone at the foot of bluff,
are said to have come upon q fiat stone covered
with strange characters. This being removed,
opened the way into passage about four feet
wide and six feet high leading directly into the
heart of the bluff. At the distance of about fifty
feet from the entrance, another stone, similar to
the first, had to be removed, when large cham
Der revealed itself, cut out of the solid rock,
about twenty-five feet square and twenty feet
high. The floor was hard and smooth, while
the walls and roof were carved in sort of rude
6dSso releOo, with figures of birds, trees, stars,
serpents and chariots. The south wall was
adorned "with representation of the sun, and
Immediately below this the figure of a man in
the act of stepping out of boat, and holding in
his hand dove"


80 FAR the revelations were not very different
from many previous ones in similar caves and
rock-chambers throughout our Western country.
But the most curious part of the discovery was
yet to come, and one that would go far to sup
port the theory of many saVants with regard to
the physical degeneration of the race A fat
slab in the floor of the cavern being raised re-
vealed below vault filed with skeletons of un-
usual size, the largest being seven feet eight
inches high by actual measurement. By the
side of each skeleton was set small vase filled
with yellow earth, beneath which were found
animal bones and particles of animal matter.
The skeletons were placed in semicircle tow
ard the southwest.


Who this lost and unknown race of giants can
have been we leave it to our antiquares to con-
lecture Perhaps they were branch of that
mysterious and cultivated people whom the
Aztecs are said to have swept away and des-
troyed in their great hegira to the plains of
Mexico. Or they may have been related to the
great stock Of the Natchez, which once held
sway all along the Mississippi. The figured sun
on the walls of the rock-chamber would indicate
that they worshipped that luminary, and the
representation of with n dove stepping
ou: of a boat, may be an allusion to that trad-
tion of the deluge which in one form or another,
all of our aboriginal peoples have been found to
hold. But to whatever family this forgotten
race may have belonged, it is certain they had
attained higher degree Of civilization than was
reached by those who came after them. In the
fingers of the largest skeleton was clasped
pearl ornament, and traces of cloth were fonnd
crumbled at the feet of the remains. What is
still more important and curious, many copper
implements were found, thus seeming to show
that the Lake Superior mines had been worked
at very early period.


If the accounts we have received of this re-
markabe cave are strictly true, investigation
may derive from it important addition to our
stock of knowledge regarding the primitive races
of this continent, and we glad to know that
the remains are to be removed to the Iowa In
stitute of Arts and Sciences at Dubuque.--New
York Times.