Page 352 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

potcru.
READING LESSONS.
351
1. You will expect·me to say something of the lonely records of the rmer races that inhabited this country. That there has," formerly, been a much more numerous ·population than exists here at pres­ ent, I am lly impressed, from the result of my own personal observations. From the highest points of the Ohio, to where I am now writing,* and far up the upper Mississippi and 1issouri, the more the country is explored and peopled, and the more its sur ce is penetrated, not only are there more
· mounds brought to view, but more incontestable marks of a numerous population.
2. Wells, arti cially walled, di erent structures of convenience or de nce, have been und in snch · numbers as no longer to excite curiosity. Orna­ ments of silver and of copper, pottery, of which I have seen numberless specimens on all these waters, -not to mention the mounds thmm:elves, and the still more tangible evidence of human bodies und in ,a state of preservation, and of sepulchres ll of bones,-are unquestionable demonstrations that this country was once possessed of a numerous popula­ tion. * * * The mounds themselves, though of earth. are not those rude and shapeless heaps that they have been commonly represented to be. I have seen, r instance, in di erent parts of the Atlantic country, the breast-works and other de nces of earth
* St. Charles, on the issouri.
L. rcmotus.
pndicularly into the earth t reach a supply of water, and walled PoT1TER_Y, n., earthenware; vessels or ware made by potters. F.
with stone. A.S.
A.S. acer, acera, or cer.
A'cRE, n., a certain uantity of land.
REMOTE', a., distant m place or time.
PRox:rn'rTY, n., immediate nearness. F. proximite. L. proximita.. MouL'DER, v., to turn to dust; to crumble; to waste. Danish, mulner.
PRoJ'EcT, n., scheme; design; contrivance. F. projet.