ANCIENT WORKS NEAR ROCK RIVER. 37 



eitlier directly or obliquely. In this respect these mounds do not difler from 

 others. 



The bird, or cross, is fifty-two feet in length of body, and one hundred and 

 seventeen feet in alar extent, and resembles those before described. The elon- 

 gated mound crossing the road to Jefferson, is remarkable for its great length ; 

 but it does not extend through the country for many miles, as is represented by 

 some casual but positive observers. The exact length, as ascertained by the tape- 

 line, is, as marked on the plate, four hundred and twenty-five feet. This mound 

 is called " the snake," which it resembles in form, though being exactly straight, it 

 does not at once convey the idea of a serpent. If other mounds are termed lizards, 

 frogs, or turtles, surely the mounds of this form are entitled to an equally distinct 

 name. 



But what most distinguish these mounds from others, are the two raised or graded 

 ways leading to prominent points on the steep bank of the river. They have, like 

 the ring at Fulton (see page 33, Plate XXV), about the form and dimensions 

 of the road-bed of a modern turnpike. It would be impossible, in the present 

 state of our knowledge of the habits and customs of the authors of these works, 

 to form a reasonable conjecture respecting the purposes of these graded ways. At 

 their upper extremity they are guarded on each side by mounds. 



The works under consideration are situated on one of the very remarkable series 

 of diluvial ridges, so common in the upper portions of the Rock river valley, and 

 to which it will be necessary frequently to refer in the following pages. The river 

 has cut away the base of the ridge at this point, so as to present an almost perpen- 

 dicular cliff of clay and gravel. A little east of the works the ground descends 

 towards the east; but the mounds are either on the summit or on the western slope. 

 The ridge runs a little east of north, and west of south ; preserving, in this respect, 

 a general parallelism to the whole system of ridges. There were numerous other 

 ancient works in and about Jefferson, now mostly destroyed. The ridge on which 

 the village is built, as well as the next one towards the east, were formerly 

 covered by a series of them, traces of which are still to be seen in the court-house 

 square. The high bank of the river on the west side above the town, had its group 

 of mounds, serpents, and other effigies. The story of there having formerly been 

 a mound here of the human shape is probably not correct ; at least we could not 

 find it, nor learn anything of its whereabouts. Among these mounds there were 

 probably none presenting new forms. 



On the banks of a small lake, called Ripley lake, ten miles west from Jefferson, 

 is a group of woi'ks represented on Plate XXIX. It will be seen to exhibit some 

 peculiar features, though the mound representing an elephant, said to exist here, 

 could not be found. The two figures near the middle of the group may be con- 

 sidered as in an attitude of defiance or of combat. The elongated embankment 

 to the east is cleft in such a manner as to suggest very readily the idea of a ser- 

 pent with its mouth slightly opened. These works are on the north bank of the 

 lake; and similar ones extend at intervals along the shore, occupying the higher 

 points, for a distance of half a mile. 



The lake is a mile and a half in length ; and covers an extent of four hundred 



