EmhJemafk Mounds. 



215 



ley of the Mississippi other effigies were discovered. Two Avolves on the 

 side of the bluff, five miles north of Prairie duChien (Map 2, No. 9), on the 

 Brush place, and two effigies nearly obliterated, on the Dousman place. 





Fig. 8. 



One of these we took to be the effigy of the camel, concerning which 

 Dr. Phene and Mr. L. H. Lewis, had spoken, but we could discover no re- 

 semblance to that animal. The hasty exploration of all these groups was 

 made in company with Dr. Cyrus Thomas, of the Ethnological Bureau, 

 Washington, D. C, and two of his assistants. Their attention was called 

 to the location of the groups and the theory of the game drives seemed to 

 commend itself as a good explanation of the reasons for their erection. On 

 the way back the party ]3assed a group of large conical mounds, situated 

 on the bottom lands, near the Courliss Bayou. Dr. Cyrus Thomas advanced 

 a theory in reference to these, which seemed very j)lausible. It was that 

 the mounds were made large and flat so that they could be places of refuge 

 in times of high water. These mounds were arranged in a large circle en- 

 closing an area of about twenty or thirty acres. The impression made 

 upon the writer was, that it was a village site> possibly the site of the vil- 

 lage of the very people whose game drives had been discovered upon the 

 hill-tops. The gorges and roadways from the bottom lands to the bluffs 

 and the summit of the ridges, seemed to concentrate near this point. 

 Other groups of large mounds, were, however, visited subsequently, and 

 one of them was found to have an effigy near it. It is probable that sever- 

 al villages existed on this prairie at different times. Which one belonged 

 to the effigy-builders is uncertain. 



Tlie discovery of the clan totem was subsequent to this. At a point, 

 three miles south of Prairie du Chien, there is an effigy of a swallow (Fig. 9) 

 situated on the edge of the bluff and overlookmg the Wisconsin river. The 

 swallow has its wings spread, but the peculiarity of the effigy is that where 

 the wings are spread to the widest fan, the bluff itself assumes the shape of 

 the wing. Where the body is, the ridge is sharp and narrow, so sharp and 

 narrow that the head and tail of the bird are built out from the sides of the 

 ridge, making it seem as if the body were dropped down below the wings. 



