Emblematic Mounds. 207 



and scrapers, to bring it to the level of the adjacent field. Its size alone 

 has protected it. These efforts have resulted in diminishing its height, in- 

 creasing its width and general circumference, and rendering its outline 

 somewhat indistinct so that it was diflficult to make exact measurements." 



The writer first visited the efiigy six years after Mr. Strong made his re- 

 port. It was then nearly obliterated. Subsequent to this first visit the em- 

 ployes of the Ethnological Bureau suryeyed some groups of mounds and 

 effigies on the blufi's, three miles north of the efiigy, but their report has 

 not yet been published. Subsequent to their survey, Mr. Brown, a student 

 in Wisconsin University, and an assistant of Prof. Conover, of Madison, 

 Wis., was employed to make measurements of the mound, so that a cast 

 might be made of it and put on exhibition with the Smithsonian rehcs, at 

 the New Orleans Exposition, durmg 1885. The exi^loration of the writer 

 under the auspices of the Society was subsequent to all these. It embraced 

 not only the so-caUed elephant efiigy, but all the mounds in the vicinity. 

 The mound Avas again measured, making the fourth actual survey. 



The following is the result of the personal examination of the mound 

 at this time: When the the writer visited the locality in 1885, only 

 two mounds out of the whole group were left, one which is de- 

 scribed as the bird efi&gy, the other known as the elephant mound. Both 

 of these had been nearly plowed down, but owing to peculiar cir- 

 cumstances were plainly visible. During the spring preceding the visit, 

 the water from the bayou had set back into the swail and remained 

 standing upon the low ground, but did not quite reach to the summit of the 

 effigies. There was at the time a growth of clover upon the soil, but this was | 

 drowned out by the flood except where the effigies stood. As a result the effi- 

 gies were covered with the clover, but the surrounding gi'ound was either 

 bare or had a slight covering of grass upon it. Standing upon the summit of 

 the hill or ridge adjoining, we Avere able to look down upon the swail and 

 see the outlines of the two effigies, the dark color of the clover contrasting 

 with the light shade of the grass. The shapes of the two effigies were easily 

 made out. The bird had its head toward the southwest, its wings extend- 

 ing across the SAvail, nearly reaching the foot of the sand ridges. The so- 

 called elephant effigy had its head in the same direction, to the southAvest, 

 but its body was lengtliAvise of the SAvail, its heavy legs extending toAvard 

 the southeast. The tAvo efiigies Avere in contrast, as the bird had long, nar- 

 row Avings, small body and neck, while the animal had a broad, heavy 

 body, almost square in shape, Avith its legs unusually Avide and clumsy. On 

 approaching nearer the outlines of the effigy Avere not so distinct as Avhen 

 at a distance, though the clover seemed to give it an elevation. The real 

 mound AA'as but slightly raised above the surrounding surface and there 

 Avere no sharp lines to the effigy. 



The measurement of the mound Avas very unsatisfactory on account of 

 the condition in which it was. The figures would not represent the mound 

 as it Avas Avhen first seen, and would be very unreliable as there Avere no 



