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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



occupy the summit of a ridge, where they are placed in such a man- 

 ner as to suggest a flight of birds with outstretched wings or a 

 number of animals following one after another. Of the individual 

 effigies discovered in Grant County the m.ost noted is that termed 

 the " Elephant Mound " (fig. 2) from its fancied resemblance to an 

 elephant, an animal unknown to the builders of the effigies. It 

 stood a short distance from the Mississippi, south of the village of 

 Wyalusing, and the area it occupied was bounded on three sides 

 by higher ground. Forty years ago, after the surface had been 

 cultivated for some years, this interesting figure measured 4 feet in 



FiGunE 1. — Typical effipy mounds representing two animals and one bird, also one long 

 mound. On the crest of a bill, on sec. 24, T. 8 N., T. 6 W., Crawford County, Wis. 

 The animal figures were each about 80 feet in length and 2 feet in height ; the bird 

 was somewhat higher 



height and 140 feet in length, undoubtedly reduced in height and 

 greatly spread in length and breadth from its original condition. 



Small burial mounds are found in the region occupied by the 

 effigies, some of these undoubtedly containing the remains of persons 

 who assisted in raising the curious works. 



Only four effigies have been encountered outside the rather re- 

 stricted area just mentioned. Of these, two are in Ohio and two in 

 Georgia. The two in Ohio are the great Serpent Mound in Adams 

 County, and the strange figure termed ''the Alligator," in Licking 

 County. The two figures in Georgia represent birds with out- 

 stretched wings and were formed of stones, thus differing from the 

 pther examples, 



