(2) In Wisconsin the most interesting mounds are the _effigy mounds_.
There are great numbers of them in parts of this and a few adjoining
states. They are earthen forms of mammals, birds, and reptiles. They are
usually in groups; they are generally well shaped and of gigantic size.
Among the quadrupeds represented are the buffalo, moose, elk, deer, fox,
wolf, panther, and lynx. Mr. Peet, who has carefully studied them, shows
that quadruped mammals are always represented in profile so that only two
legs are shown; the birds have their wings spread; reptiles sprawl,
showing all four legs; fish are mere bodies without limbs. We have said
these earth pictures are gigantic: some panthers have tails three hundred
and fifty feet long, and some eagles measure one thousand feet from tip to
tip of the outspread wings. Not only are these great animal and bird
pictures found in Wisconsin in relief; occasionally they are found cut or
sunken in the soil. With these curious effigy mounds there occur hundreds
of simple burial mounds.
The purpose of the effigy mounds is somewhat uncertain. Some authors think
they represent the totem animals after which the families of their
builders were named, and that they served as objects of worship or as
guardians over the villages.
[Illustration.]