MONUMENTS. 277 



geologist suddenly and unexpectedly meets with these groups 

 of gigantic basso-relievos, which appear to him as decidedly 

 artificial as the head of Julius Caesar on an ancient coin, not- 

 withstanding anything which may be imagined or said to the 

 contrary. 



[Another] " figure is about one mile and a half from the 

 blufi" above described. It appears to be solitary ; lies on a 

 low, level, smooth ground, and seems to have been muti- 

 lated ; the parts which I have called the legs seem to have 

 been partially washed away. If intended to represent an 

 animal, the head is evidently too large, and the attitude very 

 stiff and rectangular. But I have drawn it as I found it, 

 without any inclination to make it more like an animal than 

 it was made in the original design, with all the defacements 

 which several hundred years have imprinted. The distance 

 from this third figure to the next group is diminished on the 

 plate. It is really one-fourth to one-third of a mile, where, 

 on our progress towards Madison, we approach the termina- 

 tion of the valley in which our figures, so far, have been 

 sketched. Here, upon the side of a hill sloping gently to- 

 ward the road, are three figures, and an embankment ; the 

 sizes, distances, and relative positions of which have all 

 been drawn to a uniform scale of forty feet to the inch. 



" Leaving the group last described, and proceeding still 

 eastwardly towards the Four lakes, we ascend a ridge, and 

 pass out of the valley containing the six figures [above des- 

 cribed]. The road for about two miles lies over broken, 

 thinly-timbered ridges ; beyond which it crosses a small 

 prairie, and again enters woodland. Just at the entrance of 

 this woodland are two [other] figures. The pathway passes, 

 with scanty space, between the nose of the one and the tail 

 of the other. These are the most perfect, if we consider 

 them as ' efiigies' of animals, of any of the figures here re- 



