128 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



by the Eev, Mr. Gass, a trustworthy Lutheran clergyman, with 

 his friends. Fac similes hae been sent me by Mr. Pratt, Secre- 

 tary of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, and copies are sent 

 herewith, numbered two, three and four. Numbers two and three 

 are on opposite sides of the same stone. The drawing is exces- 

 sively rude and far inferior to the work of some modern Indians. 

 It is a sacrificial scene, taking place on the summit of a mound. 

 At the bottom is the mound itself, on it blazes a large fire, and 

 near it lie the bodies of three human victims. Around it stand a 

 circle of worshipers clasping each others hands, while the smoke 

 curls upward from the flame. Above at the right hand is the 

 sun; at the left hand is the moon, with a human face portrayed 

 on its disk, and between are the stars, over all arches the sky. On 

 the upper part of the slab are about one hundred characters, which 

 are evidently a record of something which we at present cannot 

 read. (The irregular line from the top to the bottom represents 

 only a fracture in the stone). 



The opposite side of the same slab seems to be a rude repre- 

 sentation of a wooded country, full of game of every description, 

 which a few lucky hunters are killing with the greatest ease. 

 There are deer, bears, buffaloes, fish, birds, and nondescript ani- 

 mals, possibly intended for a musk ox and a turtle. As the op- 

 posite side was a sacred scene, this side is probably a religious 

 delineation also, and may, perhaps, represent the famous " happy 

 hunting grounds " of departed souls. Two-thirds of the way up 

 the slab, a line of hieroglyphics runs across it containing, like the 

 Eockford stone, twelve characters, four of which are identical 

 with those on the Rockford stone. It is to be observed, also, that 

 the two lines of characters carried along the arch of the sky on 

 the other side of the slab, each contain twice twelve characters, 

 and in fac similie number four, we again find twelve hieroglyphics, 

 so that this number seems to have some special significance in their 

 system. 



Number four shows a central round spot, surrounded by four 

 concentric circles. Between the two outer circles are ranged 

 very regularly the twelve hieroglyphic characters just mentioned. 

 They are very hastily drawn as if the priests had long been fa- 



