ANCIENT WORKS IX THE VICINITY OF LAKE MICHIGAN. H 



removed several venvs since, disclosed a niiiiil)er of sk<'Ie(oiis of luiinan beings, and 

 an earthen cup said to hold ahout a pint.' 



• During the investigations of whicli the results arc here given, I was often led to examine places 

 supposed to be the worlv of the al)origines, but which proved to be attributable to other than artificial 

 causes. On the northwest quarter of section fifteen, in the town of Lake, three miles south of ;Mil- 

 waukee, are three elevations, supposed by some tq be artificial. They are composed of gravel and small 

 boulders, and fragments of limestone ; materials seldom used by the niound-buiklers. They are larger 

 than any artificial mounds heretofore discovered in this State, though not larger than some in Ohio and 

 other portions of the West. There arc numerous other swells similar to these in the vicinity, though 

 not so regularly conical. These undulations of the surface were produced by the same causes that 

 transported to this region from the north the vast superficial deposits known to geologists under the 

 name of drift. One mile north of this place we stopped to examine an embankment extending across 

 • the road, which was at first supposed to be artificial, and to represent the "serpent." (See Fig. 3.) 



Ecaver tiara, four miles south from Milwaukee. 



It was traced for about 150 feet west of the road, where it gradually disappeared as the sloping ground 

 became more elevated. Towards the east it gradually enlarged. It was irregularly curved, or serpen- 

 tine, in its shape. At a short distance to the east it had been worn through by a small stream, but 

 continued again, until it gradually disappeared as before, on the gently rising ground beyond the creek. 

 It had evidently once been continuous across the stream, where it was largest and highest. Above the 

 embankment was a marsh covered with flags {Iris versicolor) and sedges (a species of Carex), where 

 evidently a pond had once existed. This embankment was the work of the beaver, being the remains 

 of a "beaver dam." These industrious animals have left as indelible traces of their former existence 

 here as have the mound-builders. Their works are scattered very extensively over the State, causing, 

 as in this instance, many of the "cat-holes," or marshy places in the woods. The remains of their 

 "washes," left on the sloping banks above the dams, have been mistaken for Indian excavations in 

 search of lead or other ores, &c. 



But the most remarkable natural ajipearances we were led to examine were the ridges in a large 

 natural meadow in the town of Brookficld, Waukesha County, which were supposed to be artificial 



