90 Indian Mounds and Earthwcfi^ks. 



river one mound is seventy feet high, and thirty or forty rods in 

 circumference. Even within the Hmits of the rapidly rising city 

 of St. Louis, are some of great magnitude. On the American 

 bottom, at the village of Cahokia, (Illinois,) it is stated by a con- 

 tributor to a Western periodical, that more than two hundred 

 mounds are visible from one spot ; the largest being 2400 feet in 

 circumference, and 90 feet in height ; in figure approaching to a 

 parallelogram. In the Cherokee country an earthwork has been 

 described, as 75 feet high and 1114 feet round. 



The earthworks which have been constructed in the shapes of 

 animals, abound in the Iowa district of Wisconsin. They occur, 

 mixed with the other varieties, in great numbers, around the 

 high lands which skirt the " Four Lakes," forming a species of 

 alto relievo, of gigantic proportions. This district appears to 

 have been originally much resorted to by the early tribes, whose 

 relics we here behold, mixed with those of the modern Winne- 

 bagos. At one spot alone, probably, at least one hundred tu- 

 muli may be counted. The Indian path, along which we passed, 

 has, for near half a mile in length, a series of these, mixed with 

 circular mounds, in tiers several deep, on both sides ; forming a 

 cemetery in magnitude of itself sufficient, one would imagine, 

 for the chiefs and warriors, and their descendants, of a whole 

 tribe, if such was the original design of these earthworks. . On 

 the summits of some might be seen the recent graves, protected 

 by pallisados, of the last Indian possessors of the soil. 



The site of the singular group of mounds exhibited in our fig- 

 ure, [pi. I. fig. 1,] is about eighteen miles west of the Four Lakes, 

 and seven miles east of the two remarkable natural hills called 

 the Blue mounds. The area comprehended in the drawing is 

 about two thousand three hundred feet in length. The figures 

 ai'e traced from survey, and their dimensions and the intermedi- 

 ate spaces, were ascertained by admeasurements. In this group 

 there are seen the effigies of at least six quadrupeds ; six mounds 

 in parallelograms ; one circular tumulus ; one human figure, 

 and one circle or ring which may have been formed by the In- 

 dians in their dances, whether peaceful or warlike, or may have 

 been occupied for some such purpose, in by-gone times, as the 

 torturing and destroying their prisoners. The great Indian trail, 

 or war-path, which leads from Lake Michigan, near Milwaukie, 

 to the Mississippi above Prairie du Chien, passes along the edge 



