gracefully ornamented vases of pottery. The MoundBuilders knew how to model in clay a variety of objects, such as birds, quadrupeds,

mals to help them. They had neither horses nor oxen nor carts; so that all the vast amount of earth required for these mounds must have been carried in baskets or skins; and this shows that their population must have been very numerous, or they never could have attempted so much. They mined for copper near Lake Superior, where their deserted mines may still be seen. In one of these mines, there is a mass of copper

ANCIENT MINING SHAFT.

weighing nearly six tons, partly raised from the bottom, and supported on wooden logs, now nearly decayed.

It was evidently being removed to the top of the mine, nearly thirty feet above; and the stone and copper tools of the miners were found lying about, as if the men had just gone away.

Now, when did this ancient race of Mound-Builders live? There is not a line of their writing left, so far as is now known; nor is there any distinct tradition about them. But there is one sure proof that they lived very long ago. At the mouth of this very mine just described, there are trees, nearly four hundred years old, growing on earth that was thrown out in digging the mine. Of course, the mine is older than the trees. On a mound at Marietta, O., there are trees eight hundred years old. The mounds must, of course, be as old as that, and nobody knows how much older. It is very probable that this mysterious race may have built these great works more than a thousand years ago.

It is very natural to ask whether the Mound-Builders were the ancestors of our present American Indians. It does not seem at all likely that they were, because the habits of the two races were so very different. Most Indian tribes show nothing of the skill and industry required for these great works. The only native tribes that seem to have a civilization of their own are certain races, called Pueblo Indians (meaning village Indians), in New Mexico. These tribes live in vast stone buildings, holding, sometimes, as many as five thousand people. These buildings are usually placed on the summits of hills, and have walls so high as only to be reached by ladders. The Pueblo Indians dress neatly, live in families, practise various arts, and are utterly different from the roving tribes farther north.

But, after all, the style of building of even the Pueblo Indians is wholly unlike any thing we know of the Mound-Builders; for the Mound-Builders do not seem to have erected stone buildings, nor do the Pueblo Indians build lofty mounds.

Perhaps this singular people will always remain a mystery. They may have come from Asia, or have been the descendants of Asiatics accidentally cast on the American shore. Within the last hundred years, no less than fifteen Japanese vessels have been driven across the Pacific Ocean by storms, and wrecked on the Pacific coast of North America; and this may have

happened as easily a thousand years ago as a hundred. It is certain that some men among the Mound-Builders had reached the sea in their travels; for on some of their carved pipes there are representations of the seal and of the manati, or sea-cow, - animals which they

could only have seen by travelling very far to the east or west, or else by descending the Mississippi River to its mouth. But we know neither whence they came nor whither they went. Very few human bones have been found among the mounds; and those found had almost crumbled into dust. We only know that the MoundBuilders came, and built wonderful works, and then made way for another race, of whose origin we know almost as little.

CHAPTER III.

THE AMERICAN INDIANS.

WHAM tic coast of North America, they found it

HEN the first European explorers visited the

such as Mohegans, Pequots, Massachusetts, Narra gansetts, Hurons, and Wampanoags. But they almost all belonged to two great families, the Algonquins and the Iroquois; these last being commonly called the "Six Nations." The Europeans named them all "In