MONUMENTS. 279 



wc have endeavored lo represent. ^Ir. Taylor has repre- 

 sented llie effigies of birds, and one of the human liirure, as 

 occurring here ; and f am happy, vvitli a lull conviction of 

 the general accuracy of his representations, to call the 

 reader's attention to his interesting paj)er. 



" On one of the hills I saw an embankment exactly in the 

 form of the cross, as it is usually represented as the emblem 

 of Christianity. Some of the surveyors brought in sketches 

 of works in the form of birds with wings expanded ; and I 

 heard of others in the form of lizards and tortoises. From 

 what I have seen, I should think it very probable that these 

 forms arc to be found. But, in order that their existence 

 should excite in the public that interest which, as relics of 

 ancient history, they really possess, they should be so ex- 

 actly surveyed and depicted that their representations can be 

 relied upon with confidence. I object to the very careless 

 and imperfect manner in which most of our antiquities have 

 been examined, by which they have been rather guessed at 

 than surveyed. Although I have given a pledge not to 

 undertake to make animals of these figures, yet, to the eyes 

 of all, except very sagacious people, they will look very like 

 animals ; and the question will arise, what kinds of animals 

 were intended to be represented ? In the originals, the size 

 is so great, and the outline more or less obscured by herbage 

 and undershrubs, that the impression of an effigy is much 

 less decided than when the same is diminished and brought 

 into one point of view, in which all the parts are under the 

 eye at once. A comparison of the difTerence of expression, 

 form, and attitude, does not strike one at all in the originals, 

 while it is very decided in the diminished copies. Mr. Tay- 

 lor suggests that those were intended to represent the bullalo, 

 though he acknowledges the representation to be iiuperfect, 

 especially in wanting the ' hump.' It appears to me that the 



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