with other and more reliable standards of measurement it will lead to
very erroneous conclusions. If, for instance, skill and ingenuity in the
art of carving and etching be accepted as affording a proper idea of a
people's progress in general culture, the Esquimaux of Alaska should be
placed in the front rank of American tribes, a position needless to say
which cannot be accorded them from more general considerations. On the
other hand, while the evidences of artistic skill left by the Iroquoian
tribes are in no way comparable to the work produced by the Esquimaux,
yet the former have usually been assigned a very advanced position as
compared with other American tribes.


GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

The more important conclusions reached in the foregoing paper may be
briefly summed up as follows:

That of the carvings from the mounds which can be identified there are
no representations of birds or animals not indigenous to the Mississippi
Valley.

And consequently that the theories of origin for the Mound Builders
suggested by the presence in the mounds of carvings of supposed foreign
animals are without basis.

Second. That a large majority of the carvings, instead of being, as
assumed, exact likenesses from nature, possess in reality only the most
general resemblance to the birds and animals of the region which they
were doubtless intended to represent.