16 Bulletin of Wisconsin Natural History Society. Vol. 1, No. 1. 
It is a well-known fact, that in the state of Wisconsin, ''certain 
efifigies are generally found confined to certain localities, some 
representing panthers numerously, but other localities representing 
some other animal with the same prominence." 
"A ruling divinity always presides over a locality." 
''In one place it may be the eagle, in another the turtle, in 
another the wild goose, and in still another the racoon or wolf." 
(pp. 336, Vol. VI., Am. Antiq. and Oriental Jour.) 
So it appears (if we undertake thus to interpret the hidden 
meaning of the effigies) that the different clans or gentes of a 
once great people had each its own particular symbol, which 
they built into the soil instead of portraying it on the.ir tents, 
as was the Indlar. custom. 
Totemism has been at some time or other common to the 
greater number of the wild tribes in all parts of the world, and in 
North America it once prevailed among the tribes east of the 
Rocky Mountains, and in Mexico and Central America. * 
Briefly defined it consists in the reverence or common faith of 
a body of men and women for an animal or mythological being 
by whose name they call themselves and from which they claim 
descent. This totem is common to the whole clan and passes by 
inheritance from one generation to another. — (Ency. Britanica.) 
Dr. S. D. Peet in his extensive works and researches has 
plainly intimated to us that such a system of clan emblems did 
prevail among the emblematic mound builders, and he has given 
us many excellent reasons for so thinking. 
He has pointed out to us, that where we find a certain region 
in which one effigy type outnumbers all others, we may rightly ad- 
judge it to have been once the domain of a clan which had that 
particular effigy for its tribal totem. 
By this means he has been able to say with ease and accuracy 
just what clans occupied a certain territory and the extent of their 
holdings by the effigies which have survived their downfall. 
From him we learn that the turtle clan once occupied a strip of 
land extending along the Rock River, from Lake Koshkonong to 
Janesville, through Beloit and Rockford to the mouth of the Kish- 
vv'aukee River, and possibly from Beloit to Geneva Lake. 
The racoon clan he has located on the Shebovgan River. 
The eagle clan extended from near Port Andrews all along 
the Wisconsin River to Sauk City, crossed over the watershed and 
finallv ends in the region of the four Madison lakes. 
The wolf clan he has recorded as occupying territory on the 
Milwaukee River, and the mink in Adams and Juneau counties. 
The panther or lizard clan, one of the largest and strongest 
as his researches and our own incomplete local estimate will show,. 
