MOUNDS OF THE UNITED STAINES BUSHNELL. 673 



SMALL MOUNDS AND LONG EMBANKMENTS NEAR THE HEADWATERS 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



As we continue westward from Wisconsin to the headwaters of the 

 Mississipi^i and beyond we encounter long embankments, similar to 

 although in many instances much more extensive than those associ- 

 ated with the effigy mounds already described. They are found in 

 many places in Minnesota, northward in the adjoining Provinces of 

 Canada, in North Dakota, and some southward. Many are several 

 hundred feet in length and 15 to 20 feet in width at base. In many 

 instances they are placed parallel to one another ; others form irregu- 

 lar inclosures which would have served poorly as works of defense, 



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Figure 2. — The " Elephant Mound," Grant County, Wis., as it appeared some years 

 ago. It then measured 4 feet in height and its extreme length was 140 feet. It was 

 undoubtedly intended to represent a bear, with its head to the south. The surface 

 has been plowed for many years 



and it is difficult to offer a plausible theory of the purpose for which 

 these ancient embankments were erected. 



In central Minnesota, the home of the Dakota when they were 

 first encountered by the French, are innumerable small burial 

 mounds which may justly be attributed to these tribes. The mounds 

 stand in large groups on the shores of lakes or banks of streams, 

 often placed in long rows, then again in irregular clusters, as the 

 nature of the ground permitted. When excavated they reveal small 

 bundles of human bones ; it was the custom of these people to remove 

 the flesh from the bones before the latter were placed in the graves. 

 In after years, when the Ojibway gained control of the region about 

 the headwaters of the Mississippi, a region of dense pine forests and 



