autoptically

Updated: May 29, 2025

Although both the mound and pipes have been referred in turn to the peccary, the tapir, and the armadillo, it is safe to exclude these animals from consideration. It is indeed perhaps more likely that the ancient inhabitants of the Upper Mississippi Valley were autoptically acquainted with the mastodon than with either of the above-named animals, owing to their southern habitat.

Henry W. (Henry Wetherbee) Henshaw - Animal Carvings from Mounds of the Mississippi Valley: Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the: Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81,: Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 117-166