Antiq^idties and Platycnemism. 



189 



Peschel of Leipsic, in his 

 Fig. 1. 



Many of the mounds aie built on high bluffs, from which an 

 extensive view may be obtained of the surrounding country, 

 diversified by wooded steeps and rolling prairies, with, in many 

 instances, a broad river meandering through the landscape, or a 

 beautiful lake, with its placid waters ever abounding with fish in 

 great quantity. 



'Races of Man," says that in North 



America the aborigines made dome 



" shaped tumuli, round, flat topped 



M mounds and circular earth works; 



^ some of them contain graves and 



covered passages. These are very 

 Z scarce in the New England states, 

 •3 and are rarely found west of the 

 § Mississippi, but extend from the up- 

 § per course of the Missouri and the 

 'S great lakes, to the south, on both 



1 slopes of the Alleghanies, as far as 

 ^ Florida. Most archgeologists have 

 •9 ascribed them to an extinct race of 

 t Mound-builders, who are supposed 

 ^ to have migrated from Mexico. The 



O 



^ builders of these mounds were, there- 



8 fore, the predecessors of the Indians, 



I" and these latter were supplanted by 



=3 2 Europeans, Wisconsin furnishes 



%d many evidences of the existence up- 



•15 on its soil of a prehistoric race, 



ZZ known as the Mound-builder. Alons^ 



-2 g the northern shore of Lake Mendota, 



many mounds may be [found. The 



animal mounds found in this vicinity 



represent a bear, deer, squirrel, and 



? other mammals now extinct; while 



a few of the mounds are made in 



the form of birds, some of which are very large, and three of 



them are located in close proximity to one another, and resemble 



2 « 



