Their outlying provinces would
penetrate even into regions where the severity of the climate would
prevent great density of population or development of civilization.
The results we have presupposed are precisely those which we find to
have existed at one time in the Mississippi Valley.
The Mound Builders of the United States were pre-eminently a river
people. Their densest settlements and greatest works were near the
Mississippi and its tributaries. Says Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p.
110), "The navigable streams were the great highways of the Mound
Builders."
Mr. Fontaine claims ("How the World was Peopled") that this ancient
people constructed "levees" to control and utilize the bayous of the
Mississippi for the purpose of agriculture and commerce. The Yazoo River
is called Yazoo-okhinnah--the River of Ancient Ruins. "There is no
evidence that they had reached the Atlantic coast; no authentic remains
of the Mound Builders are found in the New England States, nor even in
the State of New York." ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 28.) This
would indicate that the civilization of this people advanced up the
Mississippi River and spread out over its tributaries, but did not cross
the Alleghany {sic} Mountains.
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