666 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
of Aztalan are simply shapeless clods of clay hardened by fire built on the surface. 
Dr. Schliemann describes such in ancient Troy. 
We advise the citizens of Wisconsin to visit Aztalan before going to Europe, 
lest they share in the chagrin which one of the most learned antiquarians of our 
country (Prof. James Davie Butler, LL. D.) so frankly confesses to have over- 
taken him not long ago. European savans make long journeys to see these 
ancient works, though in themselves the ruins are much less important than any 
one of several in Ohio. Dr. Butler writes : 
It has often been a matter of shame to me that, while living a quarter of a 
century in Wisconsin, my feet had never stood within the gates of Aztalan. My 
having passed it by on the other side was a special mortification to me when 
questioned about it — as if it weie the only object of interest in our State — by 
savans in France, Germany and Italy. 
Passing up to Madison, we find a number of animal mounds overlooking the 
beautiful lakes in the midst of which the capital is built ; and for many miles 
westward, along the great Indian trail, or war-path, from Lake Michigan to the 
Mississippi, mounds are specially abundant. About eighteen miles west of 
Madison on this trail, "six quadrupeds, six mounds in the form of a parallelogram, 
one circular tumulus, one effigy of the human figure, and a small circle, extend 
in line for about a half a mile." The animals somewhat resemble bears, and are 
from ninety to 120 feet long. The human figure is 125 feet long, and 140 feet 
from the extremity of one arm to the other, the body thirty feet wide, the head 
twenty-five feet in diameter. The elevation of this mound is about six feet. 
These forms are situated upon an open prairie, on the dividing ridge between 
the Rock and Wisconsin Rivers. 
Passing west and north, into the valley of the Wisconsin River, we find 
ourselves in what has been called the great central seat of the p6pulation which 
erected animal-shaped earthworks. From the Lemonwier River above the Dells, 
to Prairie du Chien, these singular works of art are found by the hundred. The 
fantastic forms of birds, lizards, buffaloes and human beings dot the sandy plains 
about Baraboo, adorn the single grassy slope which interrupts the wild and rug- 
ged shore of Devil's Lake and line the fertile interval which marks the course of 
the Wisconsin River to its junction with the Mississippi. "The valley of the 
Wisconsin River above Prairie du Sac for three or four miles is completely filled 
with these [emblematic] mounds." Here in one place are a number of bird- 
shaped mounds, with bodies eighty feet long, and outspreading wings 120 feet 
from tip to tip. In another place^ near Honey Creek, is a pair of buffalo mounds, 
one of which represents the animal as 100 feet long and forty feet high. In 
another place is the representation of a bear, ninety feet long and twenty feet 
broad. In another place still is a gigantic bird with a forked tail and stretched 
wings 150 feet from tip to tip. 
Time and space are too limited to go into further particulars. On ascend- 
ing the Mississippi, a few miles above the mouth of the Wisconsin, and going east- 
ward to the dividing ridge between the Mississippi and the Kickapoo, the road is 
