To the grave-mounds of the early inhabitants of our island, more than to any other source, we are indebted for our knowledge of their arts, their habits, and their occupations. Indeed, to these mounds and their contents, we owe almost all the knowledge we possess as to the history of the races and peoples who have preceded us, and are enabled to determine, approximately, their chronological succession as masters of the soil. From the very earliest ages men of every race have bestowed peculiar care over the graves of the dead, and have marked to later ages, in an unmistakable manner, these places of sepulture, which have, in many instances, been preserved with religious care to modern times. Thus the relics which they contain have come down to us intact, and even now tell their wondrous tale, in a language of their own, of ages and of races of beings long since passed away. A single implement of stone or of flint; a weapon or an ornament of bronze, of iron, or of bone; a bead of jet or of glass; an urn, or even a fragment of pottery; or any one of the infinity of other relics which are exhumed, no matter to what period they belong, or from what locality they may have come; one and all tell their own tale, and supply new links to our ever-extending chain of knowledge. To the graves, then, of our earliest ancestors, must we mainly turn for a knowledge of their history and of their modes of life; and a careful examination and comparison of their contents will enable us to arrive at certain data on which, not only to found theories, but to build up undying and faultless historical structures.