_The Mound-Builders._--An ancient and unknown people of a certain degree of civilization have left remains of their greatness in the fortifications and mounds in the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. These works extend over a great extent of territory. They are found in Western New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and along the Kansas, Platte, and other western rivers. The people appear to have originated in Ohio. On the southern extremity the works gradually lose their distinctive character, and pass into the higher developed architecture of Mexico; and at the north, north-east, and north-west, the population seem to have been more limited and their works less perfectly developed. The people were preëminently given to agriculture; were not warlike, and only navigated the rivers along their settlements. The fertile valleys of the Scioto, two Miamis, Kanawaha, White, Wabash, Kentucky, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers were densely populated, as indicated by the numerous works which diversify their surfaces. The stone and bone implements from the mounds, in their shape differ but little from those of Europe. The hatchets and knives are not only made of flint but also of obsidian, and other hard stones. Copper was the chief metallic substance. Out of this they made various implements, and swords. It was obtained from the shores of Lake Superior, where they carried on extensive mining. In these mines have been found their implements, some of which are very large diorite hatchets, used as sledges for breaking off lumps of copper, and so heavy that it would require more than one man to wield them. The copper was not subjected to heat, but it was hammered cold into such a shape as was desired. Some idea of the number of the mounds and fortresses may be given from the statement that in the State of Ohio alone there are from eleven thousand to twelve thousand of these works. The fortresses were used for the protection of the people against the predatory warfare of the hostile tribes, or even, it may be, against the incursions made by other Mound-Builders. In regard to the mounds, there has been much speculation, and some archæologists divide them into sacrificial, sepulchral, temple, and symbolical.