But before proceeding farther with this subject, it is necessary to bring under consideration the progress of archæological knowledge in North America, since the date of my visit to the ancient mounds and earthworks in Ohio. Great advances have been made in the classification of the discoveries that have taken place in the burial mounds that exist throughout the United States. Deductions can consequently be established with regard to the civilisation of the Indians, and it has become possible to establish, upon a scientific basis, their position as a race. A long series of investigations have been completed, and a summary of the results published, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, by Professor Cyrus Thomas.[97] “It seems desirable at the present time,” he observes, “to make a statement explaining the plans and describing the work of the mound exploring division of the Bureau of Ethnology.”... “The questions relating to prehistoric America are to be determined not alone by the study of its ancient monuments, but by the study also of the languages, customs, art, beliefs, and folk-lore of the aborigines. Only by such a comprehensive study can the exact relations of the ancient archæological remains to the historic Indian tribes be made apparent. Major J. W. Powell, the Director of the Bureau, taking this comprehensive and scientific view of the subject, saw at the outset the necessity of deciding as soon as possible the question ‘Were the mound builders Indians?’” The work was carried on for several years, and Professor Thomas states that “Over two thousand mounds have been explored, including almost every known type as to form.... Nothing trustworthy has been discovered to justify the theory that the mound builders belonged to a highly civilised race, or that they were a people who had attained a higher culture status than the Indians. It is true that works and papers on American archæology are full of statements to the contrary, which are generally based on the theory that the mound builders belonged to a race of much higher culture than the Indians. Yet when the facts on which this opinion is based are examined with sober, scientific care, the splendid fabric which has been built upon them by that great workman, imagination, fades from sight.” Professor Thomas also observes—“That the links discovered directly connecting the Indians and mound builders are so numerous and well established that there should be no longer any hesitancy in accepting the theory that the two are one and the same people.” The origin and nature of the American mounds, and the customs of the Indians who raised them, have also been investigated by Professor Lucien Carr. He claims “that the mounds and inclosures of Ohio, like those in New York and the Gulf States, were the work of the red Indians of historic times, or of their immediate ancestors.”[98]