by an embankment, a circumstance observed in several other cases. At the north or upper end of the series, are four oblong mounds; one with a divided extremity, or horns, as shown in the drawing. Eleven conical tumuli may yet be traced; and some others, it is said, have been removed. Persons of lively imagination might suppose this series to represent a serpent, with mouth open, in the act of swallowing its prey; the series forming a sort of serpentine row.
A little west of the village is a small inclosure of oval form, the embankment having but a slight elevation. It may have been the place of a mud-house, or some structure the decay of which has left only this evidence of its former existence. There are said to be others similar to it in the vicinity. A stone axe and a flint arrow-point were obtained here.
On the west side of Wind Lake (northeast quarter of section eight, township four, range twenty), we discovered five conical mounds, but no other works in their vicinity. Also on the west side of Muskego Lake (east half of northeast quarter of section sixteen, township five, range twenty), is a group of works represented in Plate XIV. No. 1. They consist of two parallel ridges at the extremity of a small promontory nearly surrounded by marshy grounds, and a ridge and some circular mounds on another point of land opposite. There is a remarkable excavation in the bank here, which is doubtless the work of art; but its origin and the purpose for which it was made can now only be a subject of conjecture.
These parallel ridges have been represented as the remains of a fort or fortified promontory; but a glance at the plate will show that no such object could have [page 25:] been the motive of their construction. Instead of extending across the neck of the peninsula, as in the fortified hills, and thus defending the approach to the position, they occupy a place near the extremity of the high land.
Proceeding up the valley of the river from Burlington, there are no remains for a distance of twelve miles. We then find those represented on Plate XV. By invitation, we took up our quarters at the house of Mr. Isaac Bailey, where it was once proposed to build a village or city, to be called Crawfordsville. The city was never built, and the name is only remembered by a few of the oldest inhabitants. This is the place mentioned by Mr. R. C. Taylor1 as stated in the western papers to contain a group of mounds resembling lizards, alligators, and flying dragons.
On Plate XVI, I have endeavored to represent these monsters as they appear upon careful survey and plotting. They occupy ground sloping gently towards the river at the north and northwest, their heads pointing up hill, and their general course southwesterly. The winged mounds or dragons (three in number) appear to lead the flight or march of the other animals, and to be heralded by a host of simple oblong figures, extending nearly half a mile in the same direction. An enlarged view of one of the winged mounds is shown on Plate XVII. No. 1; and the group of oblong mounds, forming the advance guard, is shown on Plate XIV, No.2.
The main figure in the general group is shown on an enlarged scale (Plate XVII. No. 2), and is two hundred and eighty-six feet in length. This and the one immediately preceding it are good representatives of the kind called lizards; while the two exterior figures, having four projections or feet, are always called turtles by the most casual observer. One at the right appears to have been intended for a lizard, but is without the tail. These are from two to six feet in height.
A little north of the mounds represented on Plate XVI. is a very large one, ten feet in perpendicular height, and eighty feet in diameter at the base. Its situation is such as to command a view of the valley for two or three miles both above and below. It had been opened prior to our visit, but without important results. It has an appendage consisting of a slight ridge of earth, sixty feet long, extending from its base in a northeasterly direction. Immediately north of it is an excava