26 ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIN. 



ing that outposts may have been guarded, so as to give warning of the first approach 

 of an enemy. 



It has been observed that among the figures represented on Plate XVI. is a lizard 

 without a tail ; and we found, on the high ground immediately south of the little 

 village of Big Bend, two, which may be considered as turtles, with a similar defi- 

 ciency. (Plate XVII. No. 3.) They closely resemble the forms described by Mr. 

 S. Taylor.^ 



One of these (on the east side of the river) is apparently a group of two large 

 and four small mounds united into one (Plate XVII. No. 4) ; or we may suppose 

 the two largest united by a ridge, and the four smaller ones placed adjoining them. 

 In each of these figures one end is larger than the other; thus indicating which 

 was the head of the turtle. One is sixty-five feet long, and sixty-seven feet broad, 

 measured from the extremities of the anterior projections; the other is one hundred 

 and four feet long, and eighty-two feet broad. One, it will be observed, lies nearly 

 north and south, and the other nearly east and west. The most southerly is 

 the largest. May they not have been the depositories of the remains of some dis- 

 tinguished family, consisting of the man, his wife, and four children? We may 

 suppose that each had a mound erected suitable in its dimensions and relative 

 position to the dignity of the person. Thus, the father would occupy the largest, 

 and the children the smallest of the group. 



The four mounds on the border of the prairie at the south part of Plate XV. 

 may originally have been of imitative forms, but they are now much obliterated. 

 From these the observer commands a distant view towards the south and south- 

 west. In digging the well near by, sticks, and logs of cedar, or tamarack wood, 

 were found at the depth of nineteen feet below the surface. 



Waukesha is the next place which seems to have been occupied by the ancient 

 inhabitants. It was formerly known as Prairie Village or Prairieville ; and being 

 on the main road west from Milwaukee, its mounds were early brought into notice. 

 Their general distribution and relative situation, as well as the topographical features 

 of the locality, will be found represented on Plate XVIII. It will be noticed that 

 they occupy three different levels : those in the lower part of the village, mostly 

 conical, are on the lowest ground ; while those in the upper part are on what 

 may be called the second bank ; and the others are on the highlands east and 

 south of the village. 



Plate XIX. represents a group of works surveyed in 1836, with the assistance of 

 Mr. Wm. T. CuUey. At that time the log-house near these mounds was the 

 only evidence of civilization in the place ; and the works were uninjured by the 

 white man, except that the large mound was made use of for a root-house, or 

 potato-hole. The turtle-mound was then a conspicuous object ; and such was its 

 resemblance to that animal, that it was pronounced a good representation by all 

 who saw it. The mere outline of the ground plan, as represented in the plate, 

 fails to convey an adequate idea of this resemblance. But it is better to give the 



' Sill. Journ., XLIV. 28, Plate v. Pig. 6 ; quoted by Squier and Davis, Smiths. Contrib., I. 130, 

 Plate xliii. Fig. 5. 



