16 ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIN. 



antly in the country, all assume a whitish color upon exposure at the surface ; and 

 it is, therefore, not difficult to account for the difference in the color of the clay 

 composing this mound, without resorting to the improbable conjecture that it was 

 brought from a great distance. The several layers of soil, brown subsoil, and blue 

 clay, run uninterruptedly under the mound, showing that it was built upon the 

 natural surface. (See Fig. 7.) No excavation had been made, and no relics of 

 any kind were found in it. Indeed, the animal-shaped mounds have never been 

 found productive in ancient relics or works of art. It was probably for purposes 

 other than the burial of the dead, that these structures were made. 



Only one locality has been discovered on the east side of the Milwaukee River 

 where the mound-builders erected their mysterious works. This was at the inter- 

 section of Johnson and Main streets, where there were formerly two lizard mounds, 

 and some others, as represented on Plate V. On one of these is given the dimen- 

 sions in feet, showing the method usually adopted in surveying these earthworks. 

 One of the mounds has a slight angle near the extremity of the tail, as represented 

 in the plate ; but this is not very common. The other figure is of the mor'^e com- 

 mon form. These figures are in their normal position, being on high ground near 

 the edge of a hill or bank, their heads towards the south, legs towards the bank, 

 and their general direction obliquely towards the edge of the bank. A simple oval 

 mound, and one with arms or wings, are seen near the lizards ; and a^ few rods to 

 the north was an oval ring, whose diameters were forty-four and thirty-one feet. 

 The wall was nine feet wide, and only one foot in height. 



On the west side of the river, within the limits of the city, were numerous 

 mounds occupying the several promontories overlooking the city and bay. The 

 most remarkable group was near the intersection of Walnut with Sixth Street, as 

 represented on Plate VI. Four different varieties of structures may be seen. 

 The oblong (a), which is simply a ridge of earth; the lizard (6), an elongated ridge 

 terminating in a point at one end, and having two projections or legs at the other; 

 the winged mound (c), being a circular tumulus, with two long, slightly curved 

 arms or wings; and the anomalous mound [d), differing from the ordinary form by 

 having the legs on opposite sides, instead of the same side. These works were, in 

 1836, covered with a dense forest. The oblong, at a in the plan, appears to have 

 been the "observatory," being in a very conspicuous place, from which may be seen 

 all the works, while in the opposite direction there is presented a magnificent view 

 of the valley of the river, and the bay of Lake Michigan, now called Milwaukee 

 Bay. It is eighty-three feet long, twenty wide, and four in height. 



Two of these mounds were opened, but produced nothing beyond the fragment 

 of a bone, and a slight admixture of carbonaceous matter near the original surface. 

 They were composed of the same tough, reddish, sandy clay that constitutes the 

 adjacent soil. There are two lai'ge natural elevations or mounds near these works, 

 and upon the summit of one was a small "winged mound." The other, though 

 the largest, was apparently not occupied by the aborigines. In that part of the 

 city known as Sherman's Addition, we first find mounds of undoubted animal forms. 

 One of these (Plate IV. Fig. 2) is on ground covered by the corn hills of the pre- 

 sent race of Indians, who occupied the lands in this vicinity down to a very late 



