Ancient Remains, Animal Mounds ', $'c. m TFi'sconszrc. 35 



feet ; of legs, forty feet ; of arms, one hundred and thirty feet ; 

 of necks and heads, from termination of dotted line, fifteen feet : 

 elevations at breast, shoulders and abdomen, thirty-six inches ; 

 arms, at junction with shoulders, same height, diminishing to- 

 ward their extremities, where they are but ten inches ; the thighs, 

 near the trunk, are twenty, while at the feet or extremities they 

 are but ten inches. Bearings, north and south ; the heads to the 

 southward. 



Plate VIII. 



Fig. 1 represents the most singular group of ancient works yet 

 discovered in western America. This monument of an ancient 

 people is in the form of mounds, embankments, buttresses and 

 outworks, which, connectedly, very much resembles a fortifica- 

 tion, and was in all probability constructed for this purpose, by a 

 warlike people ! These antiquities, by common consent, are 

 known as the " ruins" or " city of Aztalan," and they are situ- 

 ated in a flourishing region of country, destined, probably, to 

 have in a few years as dense and powerful a population as we 

 have reason to believe flourished there in former times. This is 

 the same "ancient city," which a few years ago had its day, 

 and in a measure shared the fate of the notorious " moon hoax," 

 in the press of our country. The Cincinnati Whig, however, 

 more lenient than many other papers, viewing it as a subject well 

 worthy of scientific investigation, concluded a very interesting 

 article, entitled "the ruins in Wisconsin," with the following 

 paragraph : . 



" The whole subject is full of interest to all, and eminently 

 recommends itself to the antiquary and the historian, and we 

 hope that it will soon be adequately illustrated ; but until we 

 shall have more complete and authentic accounts of these ruins, 

 their position to the points of compass, their extent, plan, mate- 

 rial of construction, &c, it will be vain to enter into speculations 

 concerning them. An accurate detail of facts is wanted for the 

 basis of reasonable conjecture. All we can do in the mean while 

 is to correct or expose the unauthorized guesses of ignorance and 

 presumption." 



I have never personally examined the "city of Aztalan," al- 

 though I have been a resident of the mining region since the 

 time it was still under the jurisdiction of Michigan. Having 



