70 - ANTIQUITIES OP WISCONSIN. 



It can hardly admit of a doubt that this animal is intended, if we judge from the 

 general form of the image. 



One of these figures had apparently been cut in two by some cause since it was 

 completed. Several excavations made in building the dam have injured or destroyed 

 some of these works. We noticed here that the reddish earth excavated from the 

 pits very soon lost its redness on exposure to the air, and assumed the light color 

 of the earth found in the animal mounds. This will explain the difference in hue 

 without resorting to the improbable suggestion that the soil has been brought from 

 a distance. The birds and bear are on the margin of the beautiful level plain, here 

 mostly covered with trees ; a part of the great plain or prairie before alluded to. 



It is to be observed, that the difference between the mounds evidently birds (Plate 

 XL VI, No. 3) and those resembling the human form (Plate XLII, Nos. 3 and 4), 

 is but slight; so that, strange as it may appear, it is sometimes not easy to decide 

 which was meant by the ancient artist. 



The prairie along the river, above Honey creek, gives evidence of recent Indian 

 occupancy in the numerous irregular corn-hills, such as are now made by them. 

 In 1766,^ and probably for a long time afterwards, it was the site of a village of the 

 united Sauk and Fox tribes — hence, the name of the prairie. But few remains of 

 the labors of the " ancient people," however, were observed on this plain, until we 

 approached its upper margin. Here we found, near the residence of Mr. Charles 

 Durr, several parallel ridges, and a few imitative forms. One of these, with the 

 anterior foot remarkably enlarged, is represented on Plate XL VI, No. 1. These 

 works are near the line between sections seven and eight, township ten, range 

 seven east. 



We here found a number of ridges with an angular deflection near the smaller 

 extremity. (See Plate XL VI, No. 2.) They have about the usual height of oblong 

 parapets and ridges, from two to four feet, and vary in length from two hundred 

 to several hundred feet. They differ from the crooked ridge (Plate XLIII), on 

 Honey creek, in having the deflected portion straight. 



We noticed here a mound with a horn, apparently intended to represent the elk 

 or deer; which, as night overtook us, we did not survey. 



A short distance above commences a series of works surveyed by ,Mr. William 

 H. Canfield, of Baraboo, and represented on Plate XLVI, No. 4, and -on Plates 

 XL VII and XL VIII. They are located on the slope extending from the bluffs to 

 the river, here about two miles apart. The ground is not level or even, but gently 

 rolling, and the principal mounds are handsomely situated on the knolls. The 

 little brook on Plate XLVII is usually dry, and runs in a valley but slightly 

 depressed below the general surface. Towards its source the ground is more level 

 and a little marshy. The bed of the stream is a little gravelly. 



The sharp-pointed ridges, some straight, and others with an angle near the extre- 

 mity, and the animal with several humps on its back, are peculiar features in this 

 group. 



The works represented on Plate XLVIII are about a mile north of the last, and 



^ Carver's Travels (Harper's N. Y. Ed., 1838), p. 49. 



