Ancient Remains, Animal Mounds, Sfc. in Wisco?isin. 3t 



of mounds, similar, with one exception, to those which are rep- 

 resented in the plates ; for this reason I omit them. The alti- 

 tude of this one is about eight feet, and its circumference is 

 eighty feet. 



Fig. 7 represents an embankment resembling in form the otter 

 or the lizard ; its location is upon section nine, near Blue River, 

 and upon the level plain of the English Prairie. The outlines 

 of this figure are very distinct ; its elevation along the body is 

 only fifteen inches ; bearings, southwest and northwest ; head to 

 the southward, and the legs are projecting westward. The 

 length of this figure, from one extremity to the other, is one 

 hundred and thirty six feet and six inches. Figures of this class 

 are frequently found in this region. 



Fig. 8, (which may have been intended to represent a bow and 

 arrow, or perhaps the rude sketch of a human figure, or bird with 

 expanded wings,) lies north, and within a few rods of the Wis- 

 consin River, about four miles west of the village of Muscoda. 

 The elevation of this mound is only about one foot, while other 

 figures in its vicinity are very prominent. In the adjacent forest, 

 we find abundant evidence of industry, in the existence of a 

 multiplicity of extensive groups of these monuments of anti- 

 quity ; and, being in a beautiful and luxuriant district of country, 

 they tend greatly to prove, that a dense population and a power- 

 ful people formerly dwelt upon this lovely site. 



Plate VII. 



Fig. 1 represents an interesting group of earth-works, in the 

 village of Muscoda, (English Prairie,) in the county of Grant, 

 the general direction of which is N. N. E. and S. S. W., begin- 

 ning upon the bank of a bayou, near the river, and passing 

 through several enclosures. The late cultivation of these grounds 

 has in a measure obliterated and leveled these works, from what 

 may be supposed was their original height; many of them are 

 in the streets and upon the commons; the village in its future 

 increase may cause a complete destruction of these works, so as 

 to obliterate every trace of their shape. In this group are three 

 figures in the form of the cross ; in the centre of the largest of 

 these, represented upon the figure by a circle, is quite a depres- 

 sion, occasioned, perhaps, in the same manner and for the same 



