Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

32 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
composed this tumulus have been almost entirely removed, the same
having been employed in leveling the streets of Rome and in making a
landing place for the ferry-boats. From this mound silver ornaments
and beads of gold were taken. It was found to contain numerous skele
tons, pots, vases, stone axes, arrowheads, spearheads, shell ornaments,
pipes, copper beads, mortars, circular stones, carefully rounded and
polished, besides other relics of a less interesting character. Along the
banks of the two rivers are numerous traces of inhumation. This spot
appears to have been consecrated to the purpose of burial. The swollen
tides never wash the shore, without bringing to light new proofs of this
fact. In the immediate neighborhood were several other mounds of
smaller dimensions, all of which seem to have been devoted to the pur
poses of sepulture. They are now nearly level with the plain. Upon
the very spot occupied by at least two of them have been erected the
dwellings and work-shops of another and a nobler race. The contents
of these were all similar. They were composed of the blue clay and
alluvial soil of the valley, interspersed with stones and mussel shells
taken from the beds of the confluent streams."
But the Cherokees possessed no information concerning these
mounds. They knew nothing whatever of the race of people by whom
they were built. Says Colonel Jones: * "When questioned by the whites
who first located here, they replied by saying that they retained not even
a tradition of those who constructed them." The story is shrouded in
oblivion. With respect to the physical characteristics of the environ
ment, Colonel Jones waxes eloquent. Says he: "Beautiful in all its
features is this necropolis of a departed race. Standing upon the almost
obliterated traces of the larger mound, whose base is washed by the con
fluent waves of the Etowah and the Oostanaula, the eye, gladdened by
the joyful meeting, watches the stranger wavelets, now friends, as in
joyous companionship they leap along the current of the softly gliding
Coosa. * * * The dark green foliage which crowns the left bank
grows darker still as the shadow of the opposite hill—almost a mountain
—settles upon the river; while the trees on the other side are joyously
waving their beautiful branches in the soft sunlight which rests upon
the valley beyond. On the right, hill succeeds hill in gentle undulation.
Behind, stretches the valley of the Etowah, beautiful in its foliage,
attractive in its graceful windings, as it bends over to guard in its
accustomed channel, the stream which imparts its life and verdure.
Upon the adjacent eminences, sits the village of Rome. The stately trees
have fallen before the stroke of the woodsman. Broad bridges span the
waters. The steamboat, freighted with the products of intelligent hus
bandry, stem their currents. Through the echoing valley of the Etowah
are heard the shrill whistle and the rapid march of the locomotive. On
every side are seen the traces of a new, a superior, and an advancing
civilization., How changed since the time when the Mound-Builders
fixed here his home, and above the remains of his family and friends,
heaped these memorials of his sorrow—these tributes to the memory of
the departed.
"Some eight miles above Rome, in a bend of the Oostanaula River,
'• Ibid., p. 83.