88 Canadian Record of Science. 



Its whole outline is strictly conformable to the alligator 

 with which animal they must have been familiar along the 

 Mississippi, where they could easily journey by boat. 

 .Rather than transport the animal from the south, they 

 doubtless erected this representation of what they must have 

 held sacred. 



In the State of Wisconsin there is one symbolic mound 

 more worthy of notice than any other. It is called " the 

 Elephant Mound," from the fact that it bears the proportion 

 and conformability of the Mastodon. This people must 

 have known something of this animal which in early times 

 roamed over this continent. I think we should not be going 

 too far if we supposed that the Mound-builders lived con- 

 temporaneously with the last of these monsters of the Pre- 

 historic forests. 



Signal Mounds. — It seems quite in keeping with what we 

 have already seen of the sagacity of this wonderful race, 

 that they should erect stations of observation in various suit- 

 able regions, so that signals could be given to the multi- 

 tudes who dwelt in the plain, when they were threatened 

 by an approaching enemy. If a fire were lit on a much 

 burnt mound at the ancient fort near Bournville, it could be 

 seen over a large portion of the valleys, where numerous 

 works are found. No doubt, this was a signal mound, where 

 the appointed watchman, like the watchman of Scripture, 

 could give the alarm of the coming foe, enabling the indus- 

 trious people to reach the fortress in safety. 



On a hill 600 feet high, near Chillicothe, Ohio, there is a 

 mound, which in the days of the Mound-builders must have 

 been a signal mound. A light on this can be seen for 

 twenty miles either up or down the valley. 



The great mound at Miamisburg, Ohio, which is 68 feet 

 high and 852 feet in circumference at its base, served, no 

 doubt, this important department of warfare, as a fire 

 kindled on it could flash light into Butler county, near Elk 

 Creek, where it would again be taken up by the watchman 

 there, and light flashed in the direction of Xenia, and from 

 one signal mound to another until it would reach the great 

 works at Newark. Thus in the course of an hour the whole 



