By the Rev. W. C. Pleuderleath. 



65 



be connected with the modern verb to snub, which comes from a very- 

 old English word sneap, apparently of Scandinavian origin, and 

 meaning to pinch or nip. But why the junior members of this 

 particular calling should be supposed to be more pinched, nipped, 

 or snubbed, than those of other like callings, I am unable to say. 



I will conclude my jottings by adverting briefly to the well-known 

 animal mounds in America, which may be said to bear a certain 

 sort of analogy to our various incised figures, though not a very close 

 one. These are of considerable number, and occur chiefly (though 

 by no means exclusively) in the States of Wisconsin and Ohio. 

 They vary in height above the soil from 2ft. to 6ft., and the largest 

 of them is stated to be 300ft. in length. They represent not only 

 alligators, buffaloes, beavers, &c, but also men, birds, and other 

 objects, one of which looks exactly like a barbed arrow-head. Mr. 

 Lapham, to whose work on the Antiquities of Wisconsin I am 

 indebted for the outlines of Figs. 5 and 6, does not doubt but that 

 they were all constructed by the Indians, and are of the character 

 of totems. Dr. Phene, however, who has carefully investigated the 

 subject, is of opinion that some of them were meant to represent 

 deities, while others were sepulchral, and some, again, intended as 

 landmarks. A few typical forms are given on p. 68. Of these the 

 alligator mound (Fig. 4) measures 250ft. x 120ft., not including 

 the heap of calcined stones projecting from the body. The beaver 

 mound (Fig. 5), 140ft. x 45ft. And the buffalo mound (Fig. 6), 

 108ft. x 52ft. I may add that these mounds are represented as 

 white upon black in my woodcuts for clearness' sake, but that it is 

 not intended to convey thereby the idea that they are differentiated 

 in point of colour from the surrounding surface in the way that our 

 white horses are, this not being, so far as I am aware, the case. 



VOL. XXV. — NO. LXXIII. 



p 



