With the exception of some slight notices of the Erie or Cat Nation dwelling south of Lake Erie, the mere mention of the Tongarias (possibly but another name for the Eries, with whom Colden identifies them), located somewhere on the Ohio, and the tradition regarding the Tallegwi, the only history which remains to us regarding this region previous to the close of the seventeenth century, is to be gathered from the ancient monuments which dot its surface. Even conjecture can find but few pointers on this desert field to give direction to its flight. But it does not necessarily follow, because we are unable to determine the direction in which the goal we are seeking lies, that we cannot tell some of the directions in which it does not lie, and thus narrow the field of our investigation. I will therefore venture to offer the following suggestions: As the evidence in regard to the antiquities of the northwestern, the southern, and the Appalachian districts points so decidedly to the Indians as the authors, I think we may assume that the works of Ohio are attributable to the same race. As they bear a strong resemblance in several respects to the West Virginia and North Carolina works, and as the geographical positions of the defensive works indicate pressure from the north and north-west, we are perhaps justified in excluding from consideration all tribes known to have had their principal seats north of the Ohio in historic times, except the Eries, which form an uncertain and so far indeterminable factor in the problem. The data so far obtained seem to me to indicate the following as the most promising lines of research: The possible identity or relation of the Tallegwi and the Cherokees; the possibility of this region having been the ancient home of the Shawnees or their ancestors (though I believe the testimony of the mounds is most decidedly against this and the following supposition); and the theory that the builders of these works were driven southward and were merged into the Chahta-Muscogee family.