Ancient Remains, Animal Mounds, $*c. in Wisconsin. 21 



" In determining altitudes by the barometer, it is best to make 

 the observations at the upper and lower stations at one and the 

 same time as nearly as possible ; but great care must be taken 

 that the two barometers and also the thermometers are alike ; 

 that is, they should precisely agree when together in all states 

 of the air. It is also necessary that the specific gravity of the 

 mercury be well ascertained, because it is not equally pure in all 

 barometers, which is the principal reason why different results 

 are frequently obtained from observations made with different 

 barometers at the same stations. Other circumstances however, 

 not generally known, may contribute to such disagreement." 



Thus Mr. Ramsden proved by experiment, that the quicksilver 

 in barometer tubes made of different sorts of glass, will be sus- 

 tained at different heights.* 



Art. III. — Description of Ancient Remains, Animal Mounds, 

 and Embankments, principally in the counties of Grant, Iowa, 

 and Richland, in Wisconsin Territory ; by S. Taylor — with 

 four plates. 



Few subjects have of late years more engaged the minds of 

 scientific antiquaries, than the mounds in the valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi. It is in reality one fraught with much interest, and 

 from which the veil of obscurity has never yet been drawn ; and 

 unless future investigations may illustrate facts which will aid the 

 curious in tracing these antiquities to their origin, it is feared that 

 the mystery will ever remain unsolved. 



In the Holy Scriptures we find but a single passage wherein 

 works in the form of mounds are spoken of, which passage in- 

 structed the wandering Israelites to establish mounds, in order 

 to guide them on their return to the land of their nativity. The 

 words referred to may be found in the twenty first verse of the 

 thirty first chapter of Jeremiah, which are as follows : " Set thee 

 up way-marks, make thee high heaps : set thy heart toward the 

 high-way, even the way which thou wentest : turn again, O 

 virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities." This passage, 

 it would seem, strengthens the conjecture that the aborigines of 



* It is usual at present, in accurate meteorological records, to note the difference 

 of height between barometers of flint and hard glass. See the tables of the Royal 

 Society. 



