The eastern portion of the continent below Labrador, being well-forested, the Amerind houses there appear to have been entirely of wood, or sometimes of wood and mud combined. For this reason nothing of any of them, except occasional earth rings, is to be found and, so far as remains of houses are concerned, our wonderful, surpassing Moundbuilders appear to have had no houses. Turning to other Amerinds, however, who occupied the country when the whites arrived, we glean a fair idea of what the houses of the Mississippi valley may have been at their best. They varied in design in the same locality, of course, according to the tribe, in the same way that I have mentioned that in the South-west we find to-day Amerinds living in the most primitive form of dwelling not many miles away from others living in high types. Some of the Mississippi valley houses were doubtless excellent structures though built of wood, or of wattling plastered with mud. Many of the mounds, squares, and circles were connected with buildings, generally forming the foundations for dwellings or other structures as in other parts of the continent.[180] In other words, they were often platforms for houses. The reasons for building a house on a platform raised above the surrounding lands might be many; one simple one was a desire to keep the floor dry in wet weather. The floor was earth, and earth on a level during long rains got uncomfortably damp if not wet. It would be natural in building, after such lessons, to elevate the floor of the house, which was done by rearing a platform of earth. This gave good drainage, and besides in a malarial region would be more healthful, and furthermore added to the defensive qualities. The habitations being built upon platforms, it would not do to build sacred structures on low ground. Man seldom looks down upon his spiritual constructions. Hence the higher the sacred building could be placed, the more sacred it seemed, and the huge flat-topped mounds of the Mississippi valley and Mexico were the result. Some of the Florida Amerinds were still living in dwellings reared on platforms of this kind, and so were others in the Southern United States, at the time of the first visits of the whites. The mounds, as a rule, are on the bottom lands along river courses, though in places where there are higher terraces these have frequently been chosen. Thomas quotes the following passage from Garcilasso: “The town and the houses of the cacique Ossachile are like those of other caciques in Florida.... The Indians try to place their villages on elevated sites; but inasmuch as in Florida there are not many sites of this kind where they can conveniently build, they erect elevations themselves in the following manner: They select the spot and carry there a quantity of earth, which they form into a kind of platform two or three pikes in height, the summit of which is large enough to give room for twelve, fifteen, or