240 EXPEDITION TO THE 



by a sort of gateway or sally-port, and a mound was 

 placed in front of it, as it were, to command the gateway ; 

 but instead of being inside, in the manner of a traverse, it 

 was outside, and could have served no other purpose, that 

 they could think of, but to allow some of the party to 

 proceed a few steps jfti advance of the works and recon- 

 noitre the enemy ; though it must be acknowledged that 

 the enemy might, under cover of this mound, have ap- 

 proached, perhaps, without being perceived, or at least with 

 the advantage of a breast- work. In one instance the works 

 or parapets seemed to form a cross of which three parts 

 could be distinctly traced, but these were short ; this was 

 upon a projecting point of the highland. The mounds, 

 which the party observed, were scattered, without any 

 apparent symmetry, over the whole of the ridge of high- 

 land, which borders upon the river. They were very nu- 

 merous, and generally from six to eight feet high, and 

 from eight to twelve in diameter. In one case a number 

 of these, amounting perhaps to twelve or fifteen, were 

 seen all arranged in one line, parallel to the edge of the 

 bluff, but at some distance from it. 



These are not the only works in this vicinity; it appears 

 that the mounds and parapets extend not only along the 

 Wisconsan, but upon the bluffs which run parallel to the 

 Mississippi and limit the Prairie to the east. From the 

 description which Mr. Say and his companions gave to 

 Major Long, of what they had seen, it appeared that these 

 could not have been the same as those he observed in 1817. 

 According to his MS. Journal of 1817, (No. 2, fol. 22,) 

 " the remains of ancient works, constructed probably for 

 military purposes, were found more numerous and of 

 greater extent, on the highlands, just above the mouth of 

 the Wisconsan, than any of which a description has been 



