272 APPENDIX. 



sons there, in the midst of these strange groups, should still 

 pretend to dispute their artificial origin. The same ambition 

 to exercise an independent judgment might lead the same 

 individuals to dispute that the ruins of Herculaneum are arti- 

 ficial ; the same argument might be used — ' that they just 

 come so in the earth.' Without going into any discussion in 

 regard to the origin, histor}'', or design of these figures, I 

 shall merely represent their fonn and dimensions with as much 

 accuracy as a very particular sur^^ey of a few of them ena- 

 bled me to attain. I shall not even pretend to say that they 

 are like animals ; for this the reader can determine for him- 

 self. I have not attempted, in any degree, to represent them 

 as they might once have been, but exactly as I found them on 

 the day that I surveyed them. 



" The method pursued in making the surveys is represent- 

 ed in plate No. 1, Antiquities. Here, for convenience, I make 

 use of the names of the parts of an animal. The figure deli- 

 neated is the foremost one of the two, between which the road 

 passes, and which are on the verge of a small prairie, about 

 ten miles east of Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. Small 

 stakes were set in the following points, viz : the eye, the fore 

 foot, the shoulder, the hip, the hind foot, and the end of the 

 tail. The angular positions of these and other points were 

 determined by measuring, with a tape measure, the sides of 

 the several 'triangles Avhich those points form, in such a man- 

 ner that the determined side of one triangle shall be the base 

 of a new one. After the determination of all the triangles, 

 their several diameters and distances were measured and 

 noted ; and, finally, to determine the bearing of the whole 

 figure, the magnetical bearing of the line from the hip to the 

 shoulder was registered on the field-book. 



The following is a copy from the field-notes, in reference 

 to the above figures : 



