THE GREAT SERPENT. 69 59 more than twelve acres and rises to the height of about one hundred feet. It is in the midst of a group of some sixty, which vary in height from thirty to sixty feet, besides many that are smaller. It has not been explored, but is considered by Mr. Putnam to have been used primarily as a site for a town. In the Cumberland valley, near Nashville, Tenn., and Lebanon, several mounds have been very carefully explored by Professor Putnam, and the remarkable relics there found are described and illustrated in his Report as curator, published in 1878. In Adams County, Ohio, there is an earthwork called the "Great Serpent," from a resemblance which has been traced to the form of a serpent about to swallow an immense egg, one hundred and sixty feet long by eighty feet wide. This so-called serpent extends more than seven hundred feet along the summit of a hill, the embankment which forms its outline being five or six feet high and twenty or more feet wide at its base. Observers differ in their reports of the appearance of this earthwork, some being able to see the outlines of the serpent with distinctness, while others observe but faint traces of it. In some parts of Wisconsin, there are many large earthworks several feet in height, made in the form of men, birds, buffaloes and other animals. The purpose for which these singular mounds were made, with so great labor, is not understood, and there is nothing known of the particular people who made them. In Georgia similar effigy mounds representing birds have been described by Colonel Jones; but these, while of large size, are made of stones. some places embankments have been erected of great In size, and extending for many miles. One of the most celebrated of these large earthworks is in Ohio, and is known as Fort Ancient. Other hills have been fortified by high embankments of earth, or by walls of stone. A singular ancient stone fort was, a century ago, to be seen near Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire; other similar forts are known to exist in Indiana and Ohio, and all tell the story of ancient wars, long before the days of European colonization. Strange record of a people passed away! Once numerous as the leaves the forests shed, Upon their mounds, and grave hills of their dead. Who in the speech of men have left no trace, Yet were they to ourselves, as men, allied, In God's own image made, though of the earth; Destined with us to an immortal birth; With reverence may we ope their graves, and tread -Jones Very.* The archæology and ethnology of America are not yet sufficiently well known to permit much safe generalization regarding the pre-historic races of the continent, though it has been abundantly proved that there were inhabitants, and, in many parts, dense populations, centuries before the continent became known to Europeans. *This heretofore unpublished sonnet, entitled by the author "The Mound Builders," was written by the late Mr. Very in 1873, after reading "The Pre-historic Races of the United States of America," by the late J. W. Foster, LL. D. MEXICAN REMAINS. 63 In Mexico the remains of an ancient civilization show that Mexicans had made considerable progress in culture, and when Cortes appeared in the country accurate information of his men, equipments and purposes were promptly communicated to Montezuma by a system of picture-writing. The progress in architecture is well authenticated by the testimony of the earliest adventurers, and the ruins in Southern Mexico and Yucatan sufficiently attest the same. There is an extensive group of ruins at Uxmal which has attracted much attention. The buildings are very large, and many are ornamented with elaborate sculptures. If some of these buildings of stone were used as communal houses, as Mr. Morgan thinks, they would accommodate some six hundred to a thousand persons, living in the fashion practised by the Pueblos of New Mexico. At Zayi, like Uxmal in Yucatan, there is a ruin that was capable of accommodating more than two thousand persons. The Temple of the Sun in the city of Mexico is said to have been so large that five thousand priests were accommodated in it, besides which there was room for eight or ten thousand persons to dance in it on solemn festivals; but this must be taken with considerable allowance. The most remarkable ruins of this sort are those found at Palenque in the Mexican State of Chiapas. This place appears to have been forgotten as long ago as the time that Cortes invaded the country, for he passed near it without mentioning its existence. It was discovered in 1750, but not explored until 1784, since which date the ruins have been several times visited and described, though they are yet to |