532 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



aud Itock rivers, aud aloug the east side of the Mississippi from Giaut 

 to Lacrosse counties. 



There appears to ha\'e been no rule in reference to the character of 

 the ground by which the builders weve governed iu selecting the locali- 

 ties for their imitative works, as they are found on the level shore of 

 Lake Michigan in the vicinity of Milwaukee, on the gentle slopes that 

 border the lakes about Madison, while at and around Prairie duChieu 

 they are found fi-om the bottoms subject to occasional overflow, up to the 

 crests of the sharpest ridges which divide the drainage areas of the 

 streams of that region. Nor is a level spot oftener selected than one that 

 slopes to a greater or less degree. They occasionally occur on quite steep 

 hillsides and on sharp crested spurs where the summit is so narrow as 

 to necessitate lapping over from one side to the other. The preference 

 of the builders, however, seems to have been for the highlands, espe- 

 cially those bordering upon the rivers and lakes. Even the summits 

 of the high bluffs which flank the Mississippi were selected as the sites 

 of the most complicated groups of effigies. As a general rule they 

 are iu groups or connected with groups, few being found wholly iso- 

 lated; aud even the groups of a given section, as Rev. S. D. Peet con- 

 cludes, appear to have been arranged or located with reference to a 

 village or tribal system of some kind. 



The various forms which these works were made to assume have been 

 displayed so graphically and, for the greater ])art, so correctly by Dr. 

 Lapham in his justly celebrated work, "The Antiquities of Wisconsin," 

 that but little is left for the archeologist of the present day to do iu 

 this direction, except to multiply examples of the forms there given. 

 No one who has examined these works will hesitate to acknowledge 

 that it was the intention of the builders to imitate the Ibrms of partic- 

 ular animals. Although it is true that in the majority of cases there 

 may be some doubt as to the particular species intended, yet in very 

 many instances careful insi)ectiou will leave but little uncertainty in 

 the mind of the observer in this respect. Even the untrained aud 

 careless eye will distinguish the characteristics which mark one as a 

 bird, another as a (luadruped, and another as a reptile. But the care- 

 ful student will soon learn to detect the features which mark the more 

 characteristic species. Rev. S. D. Peet, who has devoted much time 

 to the study of these peculiar works, is decidedly of the opinion that 

 he can determine in most cases the species represented where the 

 mounds are uninjured. Even the shape and proportions of the body 

 are often so well imitated as to justify a decision. 



One of the most remarkable tilings iu relerence to these works, which 

 has not heretofore been particularly noticed, is the truly imitative curv- 

 ing and rounding of the body of the animal. Standing at the extrem- 

 ity and looking over one which has suttered but little wearing, it is 

 difficult to exclude the idea that the builders had the animal lying 

 before them when thev built the mound. 



