■210 Wisconsin Academij of Sciences^ Arts and Letters. 



figures. One with a large body and a snout (Fig. 3) extending fi-om it 

 to a great length, curved somewhat like the horns of the mastodon. The 

 •other with a body shmmer and not so large, but with a long neck protrud- 

 ing above the body. Still no man of candor would undertake to build up 

 a theory on so shadowy a foundation as this, for we have only to reverse 

 the figure to make it represent a gigantic raccoon instead of an elephant, 

 and the theory is upset. In reference to the different groups of mounds, 

 which were found in the s wails, we should say that they belonged to the 

 same age as the so-called elephant effigy, and yet there was a fresh look to 

 them, as if they were of a comparatively recent date. It would hardly 

 seem possible for mounds to be preserved in the sandy soil, during the 

 many centuries which have elapsed since the mastodon became extinct, 

 and the theory that they were built at the time of the mastodon seems un- 

 tenable. The evidence that they belonged to the same time and belonged 

 to the same people, is that they were situated in the same kind of swails 

 and were arranged in the same order, and at the same time were near the 

 group in which the effigy is found. The probabiUties then are against this 

 effigy being an elephant, and the figure is given only to show how easily one 

 may be mistaken. 



Fig. 3. 



The examination of the effigies and mounds on the bluffs followed 

 that of the mounds on the bottom lands. It should be said that the bluffs, 

 in this region, are very precii^itous, and are broken into nairow and 

 crooked ridges, on either side of which the water courses through deep 

 gorges, down to the streams and water-sjiouts^ until it makes its way to 

 the bayou and to the river. The only way to reach the summit is to climb 

 the precipitous face of the cliff, or to follow up the narrow and crooked 

 valley of the stream to the plateau above, and then retrace one's steps out 

 on the level to the edge of the bluffs. When one reaches the summit from 

 either direction he is pretty sure to find mounds on the ridge. They are 

 hidden from view until he reaches the hill-top, but they run in long lines 

 from the edge of the cliff back to the plateau at the head of the gorges. 

 A perfect net-work of these long mounds, round mounds, and effigies, 

 "was discovered, nearly every ridge having its own line, but some of the 

 ridges having lines that were connected. They seem to be the most num- 

 erous on the bluffs which intervene between the Wisconsin and Mississippi 

 rivers, and yet we understand that others are to be seen on the bluffs im- 

 mediately overlooking the so-called elephant effigy. The lines of mounds 

 extend to great distances, some of them three or four miles in length, and 

 it was not difficult to imagine them to be sort of elevated roadways con- 



