206 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts and Letters. 



the mound, some fifteen or twenty rods distant, sandy, grassy ridges, some 

 fifteen feet higiier than the land about the mound; the mound is, therefore 

 in a shallow valley, sloping gently to the Mississippi river, and only about 

 eight feet above high water. Its total length is 135 feet; from hind feet to 

 back, sixty feet; from fore feet to back, sixty-six feet; width across fore 

 legs, twenty-one feet; across hind legs, twenty-four feet; space between 

 hind and fore legs, fifty-one feet; from end of proboscis to fore legs, thirty- 

 nine feet; across the body, thirty-sis; feet; general height of body above sur- 

 rounding ground, five feet. The head is large, and the proportions of the 

 whole so symmetrical that the mound well deser ves the name of the ' ' Big 

 Elephant Mound." Next to Mr. Warner was Mr. Moses Strong, who pub- 

 lished an account of the effigy and the mounds surrounding it in the Smith- 

 sonian Reijort for 1876. Mr. Strong was at the time connected with the 

 Geological survey of the state, and took in the exploration of the mounds 

 incidentally. He describes a group of mounds on the Mississippi bottom 

 situated on Sec. 17, N. E. quarter Tp. 5, R. 6 W. [The effigy is on Sec. 21]. 

 Mr. Strong says, " following the course of the Mississippi about a quarter 

 of a mile southeast of the preceding locality, numerous long mounds are 

 seen arranged in several ro\^'s parallel to each other and to the river. They 

 are situated in the cultivated fields and are nearly obliterated. At the time 

 these localities were visited the vaUey was covered by a crop of standing 

 corn which rendered it difficult to find them; and it is probable that many 

 exist which were not noticed. No circular or effigy mounds were found in 

 connection with them. Continuing down the vaUey we come to a group 

 in which the three kinds of mounds are well represented. They He upon 

 the alluvial bottom quite near a bayou of the Mississippi and none of them 

 are more than eight feet above high water mark, while those in the south- 

 ern part of the group are not more than three feet. In this group where 

 all kinds are represented, there seems to be a separation of the long and 

 round mounds from each other. There is nothing of peculiar interest in 

 the occurrence of the long and circular mounds, but we have here two quite 

 singular effigies. The central one of the group is evidently intended to 

 represent a bird with the wings spread in the act of flying; the head is di- 

 rected to the south. The wings measure ninety-four feet each way from 

 the center of the body to their extremities, and the length of the tail is 

 sixty -five feet. It is quite a large and well-formed effigy and is different 

 from the other bird mounds in having an angle in the wings. Situated at 

 the northern end of the group is the most interesting effigy mound any 

 where observed. A description of it by Mr. Warner, of Patch Grove, was 

 published in the Smithsonian Report of 1873, page 416. It is known as the 

 " Elephant Mound," and as it hes upon the ground it resembles an elephant 

 or mastodon, much more closely than any other animal, and the resemb- 

 lance is much more perfect in this instance than in other effigies. This 

 mound, in common with all the rest in the group, has been under cultiva- 

 tion; and on account of its size, special efforts have been made with j)lows 



