In connection with this question the fact should not be overlooked that,
among the great number of animal effigies in Wisconsin and elsewhere,
this is the only one which even thus remotely suggests the mastodon. As
the Mound Builders were in the habit of repeating the same animal form
again and again, not only in the same but in widely distant localities,
why, if this was really intended for a mastodon, are there no others
like it? It cannot be doubted that the size and extraordinary features
of this monster among mammals would have prevented it being overlooked
by the Mound-Builders when so many animals of inferior interest engaged
their attention. The fact that the mound is a nondescript, with no
others resembling it, certainly lessens the probability that it was an
intentional representation of the mastodon, and increases the likelihood
that its slight resemblance was accidental; a slide of earth from the
head, for instance, might readily be interpreted by the modern artist
as a trunk, and thus the head be made to assume a shape in his sketch
not intended by the original maker. As is well known, no task is more
difficult for the artist than to transfer to paper an exact copy of such
a subject. Especially hard is it for the artist to avoid unconsciously
magnifying or toning down peculiarities according to his own conceptions
of what was originally intended, when, as is often the case, time and
the elements have combined to render shape and outlines obscure.
Archæologic treatises are full of warning lessons of this kind, and the
interpretations given to ancient works of art by the erring pencil of
the modern artist are responsible for many an ingenious theory which the
original would never have suggested. It may well be that future
investigations will show that the one peculiarity which distinguishes
the so-called Elephant Mound from its fellows is really susceptible of a
much more commonplace explanation than has hitherto been given it.

Even if such explanation be not forthcoming, the "Elephant Mound" of