276 ANIMAL MOUNDS. 



are remarkable for their curved tails, a feature here first 

 observed/' 



In several places a very curious variation occurs. The 

 animals, with the usual form and size, are represented, not in 

 relief, but intaglio ; not by a mound, but by an excavation. 



The few "Animal Mounds" which have been observed out 

 of Wisconsin differ in many respects from the ordinary type. 

 Near Granville, in Ohio, on a higher spur of land, is an earth- 

 work, known in the neighbourhood as the "Alligator." It 

 has a head and body, four sprawling legs, and a curled tail. 

 The total length is two hundred and fifty feet ; the breadth 

 of the body forty feet, and the length of the legs thirty-six 

 feet. " The head, shoulders and rump are more elevated than 

 the other parts of the body, an attempt having evidently 

 been made to preserve the proportions of the object copied." 

 The average height is four feet, at the shoulders six. Even 

 more remarkable is the great serpent in Adams County, Ohio. 

 It is situated on a high spur of land, which rises a hundred 

 and fifty feet above Brush Creek. " Conforming to the curve 

 of the hill, and occupying its very summit, is the serpent, its 

 head resting near the point, and its body winding back for 

 seven hundred feet, in graceful undulations, terminating in a 

 triple coil at the tail. The entire length, if extended, would 

 be not less than one thousand feet. The work is clearly and 

 boldly defined, the embankment being upwards of five feet 

 in height, by thirty feet base at the centre of the body, but 

 diminishing somewhat toward the head and tail. The neck 

 of the serpent is stretched out, and slightly curved, and its 

 mouth is opened wide, as if in the act of swallowing or 

 ejecting an oval figure, which rests partially within the dis- 

 tended jaws. This oval is formed by an embankment of earth, 

 without any perceptible opening, four feet in height, and is per- 

 fectly regular in outline, its transverse and conjugate diameters 

 being one hundred and sixty, and eighty feet respectively." 



