Box 4, Folder 5: Miscellaneous Typewritten Letters

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There are many mounds of this general form or Turtle Mounds in the eastern part of the state. They are not all so regular and symmetrical as the one just described. Some have the tail slightly curved (Sketch) or even bent back, or perhaps the tail does not correspond with the body in direction. They vary some in dimensions, but all are about the same size. No two of them are precisely alike in size.

If we take the body only, of one of these turtles, we have the figure of a mound found in Vernon. It may be considered as resembling a frog more than any other animal (Sketch letter illegible].

If we take off two of the feet of a turtle mound (Sketch) we shall have a "Lizard mound", a form very often found in the eastern part of the state. It is much more common than any other form. There are some varieties among the lizards as well as among the turtles. Occasionally they hold their heads thus (Sketch L). Frequently they have an appendage or enlargement at the extremity that may, however, be accidental. They are usually about the same dimensions as the turtles, from 150 to 200 ft. in length.

One objection to considering these actual representations of turtles and lizards occurs, it is, the greatly disproportionate size and length of the tail.

Now if we remove all the feet from a turtle mound, we shall have, what may have been intended for a serpent (Sketch letter illegible). And as we proceed westward these simple structures become more numerous. They are usually straight but occasionally curved or have an angular deflection (Sketch letter illegible].

These animal mounds, the Turtles, Lizards, and Snakes, at least in our part of the state, all have their heads pointed in a southerly direction. This fact may have its significance in determining their uses. They may have been built by worshipers of

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the sun, in honor of that luminous deity:

Ascending in the Zoological scale we may next notice the mounds that are made to represent birds. The first one of this character, found in my tour the past year, was at Waukesha on a steep hillside, with the head downwards (Sketch f.). The body is 33 ft. long, the head and neck 24 ft. One wing is 100 ft. long and the other 90 ft. The general outline of the figure and the shape of the figure head and beak, leave no doubts as to the nature of the animal intended to be represented. But if we attempt to decide whether it is an eagle, a hawk or what particular kind of bird we shall be left entirely to conjecture.

If we strike the beak from this figure and straighten out the wings (Sketch g.) we shall have a representation of other figures found about Waukesha and many other places, that would hardly be called birds, except from their resemblance to others that are undoubtedly intended as such. Perhaps the head will be as large as the body and the wings of very great extent, perfectly straight. Or perhaps the wings may be (Sketch h.) much abbreviated as in some mounds, figured by Mr. S. Taylor, in the western part of the state. (Sketch i). Here is a bird that formerly existed on Chestnut street Hill in this city. It was graded down a few years since. My little daughters assisted in making the survey by which a knowledge of this interesting mound is saved from oblivion. An account of it is published in Woodwortts Youths' Cabinet for 1848.

(Sketch j.). Here is another bird found in Sauk county surveyed and figured by Mr. Wm. H. Canfield. There are many more of this form in that part of the state. Some are represented by Mr. Taylor in Silliman's Journal and I have surveyed several myself.

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(Sketch k.). Very often the birds are represented with a forked tail like the swallows or the swallow tailed hawk.

But there are many mounds intended without any doubt, to represent quadrupeds as well as birds and reptiles.

(Sketch l.). Here are some surveyed by Dr. Locke a few miles west of Madison.

At a place seven miles east of the Blue Mounds, near the great Indian trail, is a row of quadrupeds as if drawn up in order of march. Within the row are included several oblong mounds that may originally have represented some animal or other object, not now recognized. The rear animal (Sketch m.) has a traverse position as if standing and issuing orders to the troops on advance. Mounds of similar form are frequently found.

The animal, intended to be represented, is most probably the Buffalo, though Mr. Taylor objects to this, for the reason that the mound builders would not be likely to omit so prominent a feature as the hump over the shoulders of the buffalo. Here is the figure (Sketch n.) of an animal mound discovered by me the past season, in which the defect is remedied, for you see it has the hump well developed. It is quite a spirited representation of an animal, probably in the act of feeding. It is on the north side of the Wisconsin, below Honey Creek in Sauk county and was carefully surveyed in July last.

Various other quadrupeds are represented in the mounds. Here is probably a bear, (Sketch o.) several of which are found north of the Wisconsin.

(Sketch p.) This is probably the raccoon.

(Sketch v.) This was doubtless intended to represent the otter.

(Sketch letter illegible] This the wolf or fox.

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There are also mounds of regular form that do not appear to represent anything or any animal known to modern naturalists. Besides these representations of the lower animals we find those of the human form also. The figure will give you the most correct (Sketch s.) idea of these extraordinary mounds. The whole length is 125 feet, and the arms spread out 140 feet: These mounds are also quite numerous and present some variations in the western counties of the state.

Although most of these man-shaped mounds are true representations of men, yet there are others respecting which there is much uncertainty. Here is one, about which (Sketch letter illegible] singular as it may appear, there is doubt whether it is to represent a man or a swallow-tailed hawk: [It?] is found with the buffalo in Sauk county below Honey creek. It stretches 270 feet and is 90 feet long.

The animal shaped mounds are every where associated with those of round or conical form. And generally also with oblong and other simple forms. They do not extend along the shore of Lake Michigan south of Milwaukee. The southern boundary of this kind of mound extends from this city in a south-westerly direction so as to embrace Geneva Lake in Walworth county and to cross Rock river somewhere in Illinois.

All the ancient works I have been describing consist of elevations or mounds, of earth or as an artist would say bas-relief. They represent the animal as if lying down and half buried in the ground. But my investigations in the summer of 1850 brought to light another kind of ancient work consisting of excavations in the ground (Sketch letter illegible]. They are all of the same general shape, a shape that has a striking analogy to that of the "lizard mound." The elongated portion, that may be called the tail, is gradually deepened and enlarged from the extremity towards the body, where it

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opens into the main excavation. There are three other slopes or entrances into the excavations, as represented by the figure. They may be considered as graded ways or passages. Except at the place of these passages, the excavation is surrounded by a ridge or mound of earth probably the same that was thrown out in their construction.

At one point on the Milwaukee river, not many miles above the city, is a series of these excavations all with the elongated entrances pointing directly towards a large circular mound, the principal or central mound of the group there found.

For what purpose these animal-formed mounds were created must, at least for the present remain a mystery. It is highly probable that when originally built and fresh, they had a much closer resemblance to the animal intended to be represented. It is quite evident that all the minute and elaborate representations of the eyes, ears, claws, horns, &c. would be entirely effaced by the lapse of time. The abrading effects of rain, the un-heaving by frost, the disturbance occasioned by the roots of trees and other plants, must all have tended to modify the original form and finish of these remarkable mounds and to destroy all the more delicate portions. These causes have also, without doubt, materially diminished the elevation of these mounds.

The round conical mounds in this state were probably all places of burial. The body of the deceased was usually placed on the ground, with his pipe and other articles of value and a mound of earth heaped over it. Most frequently a number of skeletons will be found in the same structure, arranged around in a circle, or thrown down without apparent order.

Very numerous fragments of a kind of earthen ware, or