NORTH AMERICAN ARCHiEOLOGY. 331 



In several places a very curious variation occurs. The animals, with the 

 usual form and size, are represented not in relief, but in 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 high 

 spur of land, is an earthwork known in the neighborhood 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 pre- 

 serve the proportions of the object copied." The average height is four feet, at 

 the shoulders six. Still more remarkable, however, is the great serpent in Adams 

 county, Ohio. It is situated on a high spur of land, which ris(!S a hundred and 

 fifty feet above Brush creek. " Conforming to the curve of the hill, and occupy- 

 ing 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 accompanying plan, laid down from accurate survey, can 

 alone give an adequate conception of the outline of the work, which 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 distended jaws. This oval is formed by 

 an embankment of earth, without any perceptible opening, four feet in height, 

 and is perfectly regular in outline, its transverse and conjugate diameters being 

 one hundred and sixty and eighty feet respectively." 



When, why, or by whom these remarkable works were erected, as yet we 

 know not. The present Indians, though they look upon them with reverence, 

 can throw no light upon their origin. Nor do the contents of the mounds them- 

 selves assist us in this inquiry. Several of them have been opened, and " in the 

 process of grading the streets of Milwaukie " "many of the mounds were entirefy 

 removed," but the only result has been to show that they are not sepulchral, 

 and that, excepting by accident, they contain no implement or ornament. 



Under these circumstances speculation would be useless ; we can but wait and 

 hope that time and perseverance may solve the problem, and explain the nature 

 of these remarkable and mysterious monuments. 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



There is one class of objects which I have not yet mentioned, and which yet 

 ought not to be left entirely unnoticed. 



The most remarkable of these is the celebrated Dighton Rock, on the east 

 bank of the Taunton river. Its history, and the various conclusions which have 

 been derived from it, are very amusingly given by Dr. Wilson.* In 1783 the 

 Eev. Ezra Stiles, D.U., president of Yale College, when preaching before the 

 governor of the State of Connecticut, appealed to this rock, inscribed, as he be- 

 lieved, with Phoenician characters, for a proof that the Indians were descended 

 from Canaan, and were, therefore, accursed. Count de Gebelin regarded it as a 

 Carthaginian inscription. In the eighth volume of the " Archaiologia " Colonel 

 Vallency endeavors to prove that it is Siberian; while certain Danish antiquaries 

 regarded it as Runic, and thought that they could read the name " Thorfinn," 

 " with an exact, though by no means so manifest, enumeration of the associates 

 who, according to the Saga, accompanied Karlsefne's expedition to Vinland, 

 in A. D. 1007." Finally, Mr. Schoolcraft submitted a copy of it to Chingwauk 



* Vol. ii, p. 172. 



