Indian Mounds and Earthworks. 89 



traced, had been lately circulating in the United States, and con- 

 tributed to lead our attention towards those singular memorials 

 which daily presented themselves on the route through this inter- 

 esting region. Respecting the so called city of Aztalan,* I was 

 prevented, unfortunately, when within a day's journey, from 

 reaching its site ; and regret my inability to speak from personal 

 knowledge on this subject. Information of a more detailed and 

 scientific character than we now possess is much needed. 



As relates to a great number of other positions, it was discov- 

 ered that the configurations of the earthworks, or mounds as they 

 are usually termed, which at first sight appeared decidedly to re- 

 semble the sites, or ground plan, and foundation lines of former 

 buildings, were really designed as rude representations and out- 

 lines of certain animals, and even of the human figure ; in addi- 

 tion to those tumuli which had been constructed in the usual 

 circular, quadrangular, and oblong shapes. 



The circular tumuli of the Wisconsin prairies, are commonly 

 about fifty feet in diameter, and are not elevated, in general, more 

 than ten or fifteen feet above the surrounding level ; but often 

 not half so much. 



Those in the forms of parallelograms are seldom less than a 

 hundred feet long, and are occasionally seen much longer, as in 

 the example figured, [pi. ii. fig. 3,j which is six himdred feet in 

 length. Perhaps in this instance it was thrown up as a defensive 

 earthwork, as its situation seems to indicate. 



Above the junction of the Des Moines River with the Missis- 

 sippi, in Missomi, in the region locally known as " Black Hawk's 

 Country," we examined a long range of the circular tumuli. 

 These were all of the common size, and some of them contained 

 recent graves of deceased Indians, as was afterwards observed in 

 many other localities. Thus, in the present day, the burial place 

 of the Sauks and Fox, the Winnebago, and other tribes, is very 

 commonly chosen upon the site of the more ancient monuments ; 

 the memorials of a people that existed in unknown times. 



It is scarcely necessary here to include within our notice those 

 mounds of much larger dimensions, existing on the borders of 

 the Ohio and Mississippi, to the south and east. On the former 



* The Mexicans have a tradition that they originally came from the north, from 

 a country called Aztalan. 



Vol. XXXIV.— No. 1. 12 



