GENERAL APPEARANCE. 223 



The mounds themselves not only represent animals, such 

 as men, buffaloes, elks, bears, otters, wolves, raccoons, birds, 

 serpents, lizards, turtles, and frogs, but also some inanimate 

 objects, if at least the American archaeologists are right in 

 regarding some of them as crosses, tobacco-pipes, etc. 



Many of the representations are spirited and correct, but 

 others, probably through the action of time, are less definite ; 

 one, for instance, near the village of Muscoda, may be either 

 " a bird, a bow and arrow, or the human figure/' Their 

 height varies from one to four feet, sometimes, however, 

 rising to six feet, and as a "regular elevation of six inches 

 can be readily traced upon the level prairies " of the West, 

 their outlines are generally distinctly defined where they 

 occupy favorable positions. It seems probable that many of 

 the details have disappeared under the action of rain and 

 vegetation. At present a "man" consists generally of a 

 head and body, two long arms, and two short legs, no other 

 details being visible. The "birds" differ from the "men" 

 principally in the absence of legs. The so-called "lizards," 

 which are among the most common forms, have a head, two 

 legs, and a long tail ; the side view being represented, as is, 

 indeed, the case with most of the quadrupeds. 



One remarkable group in Dale County, close to the Great 

 Indian trail, consists of a man with extended arms, seven 

 more or less elongated mounds, one tumulus and six quadru- 

 peds. The length of the human figure is one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet, and it is one hundred and forty feet from 

 the extremity of one arm to that of the other. The quadru- 

 peds vary from ninety to a hundred and twenty- six feet in 

 length. 



At Waukesha are a number of mounds, tumuli, and ani- 

 mals, including several " lizards," a very fine " bird," and a 

 magnificent " turtle." " This, when first observed, was a 

 very fine specimen of the art of mound-building, with its 



