The antiquities of Wisconsin : as surveyed and described . d to be the work of the aborigines, but which proved to be attributable to other than artificialcauses. On the northwest quarter of section fifteen, in the town of Lake, three miles south of Mil-waukee, are three elevations, supposed by some to be artificial. They are composed of gravel and smallboulders, and fragments of limestone ; materials seldom used by the mound-builders. They are largerthan any artificial mounds heretofore discovered in this State, though not larger than some in Ohio andother portions of the West. There are nume
The antiquities of Wisconsin : as surveyed and described . d to be the work of the aborigines, but which proved to be attributable to other than artificialcauses. On the northwest quarter of section fifteen, in the town of Lake, three miles south of Mil-waukee, are three elevations, supposed by some to be artificial. They are composed of gravel and smallboulders, and fragments of limestone ; materials seldom used by the mound-builders. They are largerthan any artificial mounds heretofore discovered in this State, though not larger than some in Ohio andother portions of the West. There are numerous other swells similar to these in the vicinity, thoughnot so regularly conical. These undulations of the surface were produced by the same causes thattransported to this region from the north the vast superficial deposits known to geologists under thename of drift. One mile north of this place we stopped to examine an embankment extending acrossthe road, which was at first supposed to be artificial, and to represent the serpent. (See Fig. 3.) Fig. Beaver dam, four l from Milwaukee. It was traced for about 150 feet west of the road, where it gradually disappeared as the sloping groundbecame more elevated. Towards the east it gradually enlarged. It was irregularly curved, or serpen-tine, in its shape. At a short distance to the east it had been worn through by a small stream, butcontinued again, until it gradually disappeared as before, on the gently rising ground beyond the had evidently once been continuous across the stream, where it was largest and highest. Above theembankment was a marsh covered with flags {Iris versicolor) and sedges (a species of Garex), whereevidently a pond had once existed. This embankment was the work of the beaver, being the remainsof a beaver dam. These industrious animals have left as indelible traces of their former existencehere as have the mound-builders. Their works are scattered very extensively over the State, causing,as in th
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