Indian Mounds

Ono authority speaks of an Indian mound as a common grave, such as one moets with in any cemetery. The average farmer, driving hii city guests over country roads, points with his wliip into an adjaccntfield at a circular liillock, with the base like a charcoal pit and rking more gradually to a point near the top, gaying: "That'a an [ndian mound." As the guest show bis interest in the subject and strains bis eyes to catch sight of the object, he aecommodating farmer Mens pointing out the mounds every little way. In truth, half the moundg pointed out are not genuine, or if they are no ane knows bout it, as they have never been opened. It is scarcely plausible io assert that tho Indiani passed all their time building mounds. If they iid they might have been in better business. A Wisconsin reporter who has ridden tast and far in company with inventivo lrivcrs had an interview with an eminent Beareher after mounds on the subject. He said that he was convinced, as far as any one could be convinced when tangible proofs were wanting, of the Asi&tic origin of the people who minod copper on the south snore of Lake Superior, and earlier still on Isle Royale, and who built what !s known as Aztalan. "There are a greatvariety of mounds in the State," he said, "but all divisions that have been made yet uro notto be depended on. ïhe earliest that woro built were the sacrificial mounds and the mounds of adoration. The latter were built so that the rising and setting sun could bo seen from them. They were invariably built round. The sacrificial mounds were square, as their remains indícate. The size of the mounds depended on the ease with which the soil could be moved. There are also round moundi in which a great many skeletons are found when they are opened. Tho sacrificial mounds are not very plenty in this part of the State, nor, in fact, in any part. The remains of ono are situated on the east bank of the Chippewa river, near Beef slough, and another on tho point of land at the confluence of the Red Cedar and Chetek rivers, in Northern Wisconsin. A path of eftigy mounds has been traced from Chetek lake to Cedar lake, in Barron County. In a swamp west of Lake Chetek, flooded by water now, is the old road the early caravans used to travel. These traces are all that remain of the race that once worked the early copper mines on Lake Superior. In Wisconsin by far the larger proportion are effigy mounds, whilo in Óhio the animal mounds do not probably number a half dozen, and the largest of them is entirely separated from the inclosures. Two bird mounds occur in Putnam County, Ga. With these exceptions the effigy mounds belong to one locality and to a people who had not the characteristics of contemporary nations. It is also probable that the people who built these mounds were not the same who constructed the burial mounds. It is the remains of the effigy mounds that we want the State to appropriate money to purchase. "How much land would it takef" "About three hundred acres in different parts of the State. It is the square mounds that are most significant, as their relative position shows the way the people traveled." Alluding to the magnitude of the work done by this strange people, he said that the excavation on Isle Royale, Lake Superior, showed that thousands of men had worked there at a time. "Whole cartloads of hammers were found there. In Ontonagon County and at Kewaunee Point, on the south shore of the lake, the excavation extenda for fiftv miles. The Indians of the present day are a different race, for the work of the copper mines was abandoned several hundred years ago. In fact, it is my theory that the conquest of Mexico by Cortez and the shutting down of work in the copper mines was at the same time." It is probable that some measure will be considered to appropriate a sum of money to lm v the land on which