20 ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIX, 



vators. 3d. That of occupancy by the modern race of Indians. 4tb. The present 

 period, when their descendants continue to visit it, and to bring hither the remains 

 of their departed friends. 



A few circular mounds, but no other works, are found near Saukville, on the 

 Milwaukee River, in Ozaukee County. At this place was discovered one of 

 the most regular and best finished stone axes that we have obtained. A little 

 further west, on the road to Newburgh, is a group of oblong embankments, occu- 

 pying the 'end and flanks of a ridge, as represented on Plate X. Here is a mound 

 established, as is usual, on the highest point ; and if the forest were removed, it 

 would command a very extensive view of the surrounding country. Whether the 

 peculiar arrangement of these oblong elevations is the result of design or accident, 

 is not easily determined. There can be little doubt that the place was a station 

 for a look-out, or post of a sentinel, whose duty it might be to give notice of the 

 approach of an enemy, or perhaps to detect the presence of game in the country. 

 The earthworks are not of such magnitude, nor are they so arranged, as to justify 

 the conclusion that they constituted a work of defence ; and they may be only 

 receptacles of the last remains of some distinguished persons. 



On the south side of the Milwaukee River, in the town of Trenton, are several 

 groups of works not visited by me. One of them, surveyed by my friend, Mr. L. 

 L. Sweet, is represented on Plate X., and, as described by him, consists of a turtle, 

 two crosses, two club-shaped, three oblong, and five conical mounds. They are 

 situated on lots numbered six and seven, of section eighteen, in township eleven, and 

 range twenty. "I carefully noted," says Mr. Sweet, "the dimensions, &c., of the 

 most important of these mounds, and send you the result. The largest cruciform 

 figure is one hundred and eighty-five feet in length of trunk ; the head, twenty- 

 four feet long ; the arms, seventy-two feet each ; the height at the head, three 

 feet ten inches ; at the centre, four feet six inches. Uniform width of the head 

 at the base, twenty-eight feet. The shaft gradually diminished in height and width 

 to a point at the end. The appearance is that of a cross sunk in light earth, in 

 which the lower extremity is still buried beneath the surface. I was forcibly 

 struck with the fact that the arms were of exactly equal length, and at right angles 

 to the trunk. I felt and said. Here is order and design; but what that design 

 is, we probably never shall know. Is it possible that the people who constructed 

 these works found their way to this continent after the Christian Era ? Perhaps 

 not ; yet curiosity will make the inquiry. Two round mounds near the foot of 

 this cross are each three feet high, and twenty and twenty-two feet in diameter at 

 the base. The oblong bears N. 22° E., and is sixty-eight feet long, twenty-two 

 wide, and four feet five inches high ; the ends are square." 



" The smaller cross is one hundred and sixty feet long ; the head, twenty-two 

 feet ; the arms, each fifty-one feet ; the height two feet eight inches. It terminates 

 in a point, and resembles the large one in every respect. The body of the "turtle" 

 is twenty-two feet long, and fifteen feet wide; the head, four feet long; the height 

 three feet eight inches. It has but three legs, one of which seems to have been 

 left unfinished or destroyed. The head is towards the river. There are some other 

 small mounds in the vicinity, not represented on the plate. The ground on which 



