Passing the Pennsylvania state line one reaches the southern barren serpentine rocks, which are in general tolerably level for a considerable distance.
About 700 yards, or 640 meters, south of the line, on the river shore, are rocks which have been named the Bald Friars. French’s tavern is here, at the mouth of a small stream which empties into the Susquehanna. About 874 yards (800 meters) south of this tavern are a number of islands which have local names, but which are curious as containing inscriptions of the aborigines.
The material of which most of these islands are composed is chlorite schist, but as this rock is almost always distinguished by the quartz veins which intersect it, so in this case some of the islands are composed of this material almost exclusively, which gives them a very striking white appearance.
One of these, containing the principal inscriptions, is called Miles island.
The figures, which covered every part of the rocks that were exposed, were apparently of historical or at least narrative purport, since they seemed to be connected. Doubtless the larger portion of the inscription has been carried away by the successive vicissitudes which have broken up and defaced, and in some instances obliterated, parts of which we find evidence of the previous existence on the islands.
Every large bowlder seems to contain some traces of previous inscription, and in many instances the pictured side of the bowlder is on its under side, showing that it has been detached from its original place. The natural agencies are quite sufficient to account for any amount of this kind of displacement, for the rocks in their present condition are not refractory and offer no great resistance to the wear of weather and ice; but in addition to this must be added human agencies.
Amongst other things, they represent the conventional Indian serpent’s head, with varying numbers of lines.
Some of the signs next frequently recurring were concentric circles, in some cases four and in other cases a lesser number.
Fig. 45 is a reproduction of Prof. Frazer’s illustration.
This region was also referred to by Dr. Charles Rau (a), his cut from the specimen in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution (Mus. No. 39010) being here reproduced as Fig. 46.
During the autumn of the years 1888 and 1889 Dr. Hoffman visited these rocks, securing sketches and measurements, the former of which are reproduced in Figs. 47 and 48. The figures are deeply cut, as if rubbed down with sand and a round stick of green wood. The deepest channels, varying from three-fourths to 1¼ inches across and almost as deep as they are wide, appear as if cut out with a gouge, and for this reason bear a strong resemblance to the petroglyphs in Owens valley, California. In whatever manner these sculpturings were made, it is evident that much time and great labor were expended upon them, as this variety of rock, locally termed “Nigger-head,” is extremely hard.
Fig. 45 represents a bird’s-eye view of the top of the rock, bearing the greater amount of workmanship. The petroglyphs cover a surface measuring about 5 feet by 4 feet 6 inches. The extreme ends of the figures extend beyond the irregular horizontal surface and project over the rounded edge of the rock, so that the line, at the left-hand lower part of the illustration, dips at an angle of about 45°. The two short lines at the extreme right are upon the side of the upper edge of the rock, where the surface inclines at an angle of 30°.
Some of the figures are indefinite, which is readily accounted for by the fact that the rock is in the river, a considerable distance from shore, and annually subjected to freshets and to erosion by floating logs and drift material. The characters at the right end of the upper row resemble those near Washington, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. (See Fig. 73.)
Fig. 48 presents three characters, selected from other portions of the rock, to illustrate the variety of designs found. They are like some found at Owens valley, California, as will be observed by comparing them with the descriptions and plates under that heading in this section. The left-hand figure is 4 inches in diameter, the middle one 6 inches wide and about 15 inches in height, and the third, or right-hand, is composed of concentric rings, measuring about 10 inches across.
The following description of the much-discussed Dighton rock is taken from Schoolcraft (b), where it is accompanied with a plate, now reproduced as Fig. 49:
The ancient inscription on a bowlder of greenstone rock lying in the margin of the Assonet or Taunton river, in the area of ancient Vinland, was noticed by the New England colonists so early as 1680, when Dr. Danforth made a drawing of it. This outline, together with several subsequent copies of it, at different eras, reaching to 1830, all differing considerably in their details, but preserving a certain general resemblance, is presented in the Antiquatés Americanes [sic] (Tables XI, XII), and referred to the same era of Scandinavian discovery. The imperfections of the drawings (including that executed under the auspices of the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1839, Table XII), and the recognition of some characters bearing more or less resemblance to antique Roman letters and figures, may be considered to have misled Mr. Magnusen in his interpretation of it. From whatever cause, nothing could, it would seem, have been wider from the purport and true interpretation of it. It is of purely Indian origin, and is executed in the peculiar symbolic character of the Kekeewin.
A number of copies of the inscriptions on this rock, taken at different times by different persons, are given below in Chapter XXII, sec. 2, with remarks upon them.
Dr. Hoffman visited the locality in 1886, and found that the surface was becoming rapidly destroyed from the frequent use of scrubbing with broom and water to remove the film of sand and dirt which is daily deposited by every tide, the rock being situated at a short distance inshore. Visitors are frequent, and the guide or ferryman does not interfere with them so long as he can show his passengers the famous inscription.
The resemblance between the characters on this rock and those found in western Pennsylvania, near Millsboro, Fig. 75, and south of Franklin, on the “Indian God rock,” Fig. 74, will be noted.
In Rafn’s Antiq. Amer. (b) is the following account:
A large stone, on which is a line of considerable length in unknown characters, has been recently found in Rutland, Worcester county, Massachusetts; they are regularly placed, and the strokes are filled with a black composition nearly as hard as the rock itself. The Committee also adds that a similar rock is to be found in Swanzy, county of Bristol and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, perhaps ten miles from the Dighton Rock.
The late Mr. P. W. Norris, who was connected with the Bureau of Ethnology, reported large numbers of pecked totemic characters on the horizontal faces of the ledges of rock at Pipestone quarry in Minnesota, and presented some imitations of the peckings. There is a tradition that it was formerly the custom for each Indian who gathered stone (catlinite) for pipes, to inscribe his totem (whether clan or tribal or personal totem is not specified) upon the rock before venturing to quarry upon this ground. Some of the cliffs in the immediate vicinity were of too hard a nature to admit of pecking or scratching, and upon these the characters were placed in colors. Mr. Norris distinguished bird tracks, the outline of a bird resembling a pelican, deer, turtle, a circle with an interior cross, and a human figure.
Examples of so-called totemic designs from this locality are given in Fig. 50, which are reproduced from the work of R. Cronau (a):
The same petroglyphs and also others at the Pipestone quarry are described and illustrated by Prof. N. H. Winchell (a). A part of his remarks is as follows:
On the glaciated surface of the quartzite about the “Three Maidens,” which is kept clean by the rebound of the winds, are a great many rude inscriptions, which were made by pecking out the rock with some sharp-pointed instrument or by the use of other pieces of quartzite. They are of different sizes and dates, the latter being evinced by their manner of crossing and interfering and by the evident difference in the weight of the instruments used. They generally represent some animal, such as the turtle, bear, wolf, buffalo, elk, and the human form. The “crane’s foot” is the most common; next is the image of men; next the turtle. It would seem as if any warrior or hunter who had been successful and happened to pass here left his tribute of thanks to the great spirit in a rude representation of his game and perhaps a figure of himself on the rocks about these bowlders, or perhaps had in a similar way invoked the good offices of the spirits of his clan when about to enter on some expedition. In some cases there is a connection of several figures by a continuous line, chipped in the surface of the rock in such a manner as if some legend or adventure were narrated, but for the most part the figures are isolated. This is the “sacred ground” of the locality. Such markings can be seen at no other place, though there is abundance of bare, smooth rock. (Similar inscriptions are found on the red quartzite in Cottonwood county). The excavation of the surface of the rock is very slight, generally not exceeding a sixteenth of an inch, and sometimes only enough to leave a tracing of the designed form. The hardness of the rock was a barrier to deep sculpturing with the imperfect instruments of the aborigines; but it has effectually preserved the rude forms that were made. The fine glacial scratches that are abundantly scattered over this quartzite indicate the tenacity with which it retains all such impressions, and will warrant the assignment of any date to these inscriptions that may be called for within the human period. Yet it is probable that they date back to no very great antiquity. They pertain, at least, to the dynasty of the present Indian tribes. The totems of the turtle and the bear, which are known to have been powerful among the clans of the native races in America at the time of the earliest European knowledge of them, and which exist to this day, are the most frequent objects represented. The “crane’s foot,” or “turkey foot,” or “bird track,” terms which refer perhaps to the same totem sign—the snipe—is not only common on these rocks, but is seen among the rock inscriptions of Ohio, and was one of the totems of the Iroquois, of New York.
In June, 1892, Mr. W. H. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnology, visited the Pipestone quarry and took a number of tracings of the petroglyphs, which unfortunately were received too late for insertion in the present work. Some of his remarks are as follows:
The trouble with the figures copied and published by Prof. Winchell is that they are not arranged in the original order. It will now be impossible to correct this entirely, as most of the stones have been taken up and removed. * * * The Winchell drawings were evidently drawn by eye and have a very large personal equation; besides, they are mixed up while appearing to be in some order. The few groups that I was able to get are, it seems to me, of more interest than all the single figures you could put in a book. There can be little doubt that in the main this great group of pictures was arranged in definite order, agreeing with the arrangements of mythical personages and positions usual in the aboriginal ceremonials of the region. It is a great pity that the original order has been destroyed, but the inroads of relic hunters and inscription cranks made it necessary to take up the stones. One large stone was taken to Minneapolis by Prof. Winchell. There are a few pieces still in place. All were near the base of one of the great granite bowlders, and it is said here that formerly, within the memory of the living, the place was visited by Indians who wished to consult the gods.
The following description is extracted from the account of Mr. James W. Lynd (b):
Numerous high bluffs and cliffs surround it; the Pipestone quarry and the alluvial flat below these, in which the quarry is situated, contains a huge bowlder that rests upon a flat rock of glistening, smooth appearance, the level of which is but a few inches above the surface of the ground. Upon the portions of this rock not covered by the bowlder above and upon bowlder itself are carved sundry wonderful figures—lizards, snakes, otters, Indian gods, rabbits with cloven feet, muskrats with human feet, and other strange and incomprehensible things—all cut into the solid granite, and not without a great deal of time and labor expended in the performance. * * *
A large party of Ehanktonwanna and Teetonwan Dakotas, says the legend, had gathered together at the quarry to dig the stone. Upon a sultry evening, just before sunset, the heavens suddenly became overclouded by a heavy rumbling thunder and every sign of an approaching storm, such as frequently arises on the prairie without much warning. Each one hurried to his lodge, expecting a storm, when a vivid flash of lightning, followed immediately by a crashing peal of thunder, broke over them, and, looking towards the huge bowlder beyond their camp, they saw a pillar or column of smoke standing upon it, which moved to and fro, and gradually settled down into the outline of a huge giant, seated upon the bowlder, with one long arm extended to heaven and the other pointing down to his feet. Peal after peal of thunder, and flashes of lightning in quick succession followed, and this figure then suddenly disappeared. The next morning the Sioux went to this bowlder and found these figures and images upon it, where before there had been nothing, and ever since that the place has been regarded as wakan or sacred.
Mr. T. H. Lewis (b) gives a description of Fig. 51.
This bowlder is in the edge of the public park, on the north end of the plateau at Brown’s valley, Minnesota. The bowlder has a flat surface with a western exposure, is irregular in outline, and is about 5 feet 8 inches in diameter, and firmly imbedded in the terrace.
The central figure, a, undoubtedly represents a man, although the form is somewhat conventional; b represents a bird; c represents a tortoise; d is a cross and circle combined, but the circle has a groove extending from it; e, f, and g, although somewhat in the shape of crosses, probably represent bird tracks; h and i are nondescript in character, although there must be some meaning attached to them; k and l are small dots or cups cut into the bowlder.
The figures as illustrated are one-eighth of their natural size, and are also correct in their relative positions one to the other. The work is neatly done although the depth of the incisions is very slight.
Mr. Charles Hallock, of Washington, D. C., reports the occurrence of pictured rocks near Fort Assiniboin, Montana, but does not mention whether they are colored or incised, and also fails to describe the general type of the characters found.
The following (condensed) description of petroglyphs found in Dakota county, Nebraska, is furnished by Mr. J. H. Quick, of Sioux City, Iowa:
The petroglyphs are found upon the face of a sandstone cliff in a deep ravine at a point where two watercourses (dry for the most part), meet about 20 miles south of Sioux City, Iowa, but in Dakota county, in the State of Nebraska. At this point the range of bluffs which bounds the Missouri river bottom is deeply cut through by the above-mentioned ravine, which runs in a northerly direction towards the Missouri. Another ravine coming from the southwest leaves this narrow point of land between the two ravines, rising to a height of 50 to 75 feet above the bottom of the ravines. For some distance from the point this cape, if I may so term it, shows ledges of sandstone cropping out on both sides. And exactly at the point and for some rods back on the east side are found the pictographs under consideration.
The rocks are of two kinds, a few feet of hard jasperous sandstone superimposed on about the same thickness of sandstone so soft that it can be crumbled to pieces in the fingers. The lower soft strata have been worn away, leaving the upper harder layers jutting out to a distance of several feet over and completely sheltering them. And on the smooth surface of these lower soft strata, protected by the overhanging ledge above, shut in by bluffs 200 feet high on the east and sheltered from the winds by dense underwood and scrubby forest trees, are carved these pictographs. These safeguards, combined with the advantage of a very secluded situation, have combined to preserve them, very little marred by careless and mischievous hands.
The eagle or “thunder-bird” figures are quite numerous. There are also many of the “buffalo track” and of the “turkey track” figures. I call them “turkey tracks” because they all show a spur and seem to represent some of the large gallinaciæ.
In one of the groups, which I will call the “bear-fight group,” we are at a loss to determine whether the figure of the small animal was a part of the original design or a subsequent interpolation. It seemed genuine, but was not so deeply carved as the other figures. The same may be said of the diagonal bars across the figure of the bear.
In the other group, which I will term the “turkey-track group,” there are some figures of which we could not even imagine the meaning. But they are undoubtedly genuine, and seem to belong to the same design as the other figure.
The “bear-track” figures are very numerous and of several different sizes. A cat-like figure, which we call a panther, shows faintly. It is about effaced by time. Other figures reminded us of a crab or crawfish, but we were unable to determine whether the line running back just below belongs to it or not.
I am informed by the same gentleman who saw these petroglyphs in 1857 that there were at one time many more some 3 or 4 miles from this place, near Homer, Nebraska, in the vicinity of a large spring, but he also said that as it is a favorite picnic ground for the country people the carvings are probably destroyed. I presume others may be found in these bluffs.
I surmise that the almost cave-like nature of the place where the carvings I have above attempted to describe are situated rendered it a favorite camping ground and resting place; and also that the ravines above mentioned made easy trails from the Missouri bottom up to the higher grounds farther from the river, because it obviated the ascent of the very steep bluffs.
The Winnebago Indian reservation is a few miles south of this locality, but they were placed here by the Government as late as from 1860 to 1865. Previous to that time I think this ground was occupied by the Omahas. I have been unable to gain any information as to the Indians who carved these figures or as to their meaning.
The most instructive of the petroglyphs, copies of which are kindly furnished by Mr. Quick, is presented as Pl. XIII, and selected sketches from that and the other petroglyphs copied are shown as Figs. 52 and 53.
Frank La Flèche, of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in February, 1886, communicated the following:
Ingnanχe gikáχa-ina is the Omaha name of a rock ledge on the banks of the Missouri river, near the Santee agency, Nebraska. This ledge contains pictographs of men who passed to the happy hunting grounds, of life size, the sandstone being so soft that the engravings would be made with a piece of wood. They are represented with the special cause (arrow, gun, etc.), which sped them to hades. The souls themselves are said to make these pictographs before repairing “to the spirits.”
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, of the Bureau of Ethnology, says that the probable rendering of the term when corrected is, “Spirit(s) they-made-themselves the (place where).”
Petroglyphs have been found by members of the U. S. Geological Survey at the lower extremity of Pyramid lake, Nevada, though no accurate reproductions are available. These characters are mentioned as incised upon the surface of basalt rocks.
Petroglyphs also occur in considerable numbers on the western slope of Lone Butte, in the Carson desert. All of these appear to have been produced on the faces of bowlders and rocks by pecking and scratching with some hard mineral material like quartz.
A communication from Mr. R. L. Fulton, of Reno, Nevada, tells that the drawing now reproduced as Fig. 54 is a pencil sketch of curious petroglyphs on a rock on the Carson river, about 8 miles below old Fort Churchill. It is the largest and most important one of a group of similar characters. It is basaltic, about 4 feet high and equally broad.
Mr. Fulton gives the following description:
The rock spoken of has an oblong hole about 2 inches by 4 and 16 inches deep at the left end, which has been chipped out before the lines were drawn, if it was not some form of the ancient mill which is so common, as it seems to be the starting point for the whole scheme of the artist. The rock lies with a broad, smooth top face at an angle towards the south, and its top and southeast side are covered with lines and marks that convey to the present generation no intelligence whatever, so far as I can learn.
A line half an inch wide starts at the hole on the left and sweeping downward forms a sort of border for the work until it reaches midway of the rock, when it suddenly turns up and mingles with the hieroglyphics above. Two or three similar lines cross at the top of the stone, and one runs across and turns along the north side, losing itself in a coating of moss that seems as hard and dry and old as the stone itself. From the line at the bottom a few scallopy looking marks hang that may be a part of the picture, or it may be a fringe or ornament. The figures are not pictures of any animal, bird, or reptile, but seem to be made up of all known forms and are connected by wavy, snake-like lines. Something which might be taken for a dog with a round and characterless head at each end of the body, looking towards you, occupies a place near the lower line. The features are all plain enough. A deer’s head is joined to a patchwork that has something that might be taken for 4 legs beneath it. Bird’s claws show up in two or three places, but no bird is near them. Snaky figures run promiscuously through the whole thing. A circle at the right end has spokes joining at the center which run out and lose themselves in the maze outside.
The best known and largest collection of marks that I know of covers a large smooth ledge at Hopkins Soda Springs, 12 miles south of the summit on the Central Pacific railroad. The rock is much the same in character as those I have described, but the groundwork in this case is a solid ledge 10 feet one way and perhaps 40 the other, all closely covered with rude characters, many of which seem to point to human figures, animals, reptiles, etc. The ledge lies at an angle of 45°, and must have been a tempting place for a lazy artist who chanced that way.
Many other places on the Truckee river have such rocks all very much alike, and yet each bearing its own distinct features in the marking. Near a rock half a mile east of Verdi, a station on the Central Pacific railroad, 10 miles east of Reno, lie two others, the larger of which has lines originating in a hole at the upper right-hand corner, all running in tangents and angles, making a double-ended kind of an arrangement of many-headed arrows, pointing three ways. A snail-like scroll lies between the two arms, but does not touch them. Below are blotches, as if the artist had tried his tools.
This region has been roamed over by the Washoe Indians from a remote period, but none of them know anything of these works. One who has gray hair and more wrinkles than hairs, who is bent with age and who is said to be a hundred years old, was led to the spot. He said he saw them a heap long time ago, when he was only a few summers old, and they looked then just as they do now.
Mr. Lovejoy, a well-known newspaper man, took up, in 1854, the ranche where the rocks lie, and said just before his death that they were in exactly the same condition when he first saw them as they are to-day. Others say the same, and they are certainly of a date prior to the settlement of this coast by Americans and probably by the Spanish.
They are very peculiar in many respects, and the rock is wonderfully adapted to the uses to which it has been put. Wherever the surface has been broken the color has changed to gray, and no amount of wear or weather seems to turn it back. The indentation is so shallow as to be imperceptible to sight or touch, and yet the marks are as plain as they could be made, and can be seen as far as the rock can be distinguished from its fellows.
It is hardly likely that the work was done without some motive besides the simple love of doing it, and it was well and carefully done, too, showing much patience and doubtless consumed a good deal of time, as the tools were poor.
A large ledge is marked near Meadow lake in Nevada county, and in the state of Nevada the petroglyphs cover a route extending from the southeast to the northwest corner of the state, crossing the line into California in Modoc county, and leaving a string of samples clear across the Madeline plains.
Eight miles below Belmont, in Nye county, Nevada, an immense rock which at some time has fallen into the canyon from the porphyry ledge above it has a patch of marks nearly 20 feet square. It is so high that a man on horseback can not reach the top.
A number at Reveillé, in the same county, are also marked. On the road to Tybo every large rock is marked, one of the figures being a semicircle with a short vertical spoke within the curve. At Reno a heavy black rock a couple of feet across is beautifully engraved to represent a bull’s eye of 4 rings, an arrow with a very large feather, and one which may mean a man. In a steep canyon 15 miles northeast of Reno, in Spanish Spring mountains, several cliffs are well marked, and an exposed ledge, where the Carson river has cut off the point of a hill below Big Bend, is covered with rings and snakes by the hundred. Several triangles, a well-formed square and compass, a woman with outstretched arms holding an olive branch, etc., are there.
Humboldt county has its share, the best being on a bluff below the old Sheba mine. Ten miles south of Pioche are about 50 figures cut into the rock, many of them designed to represent mountain sheep. Eighty miles farther south, near Kane’s Spring, the most numerous and perfect specimens of this prehistoric art are found. Men on horseback engaged in the pursuit of animals are among the most numerous, best preserved, and carefully executed.
The region I have gone over is of immense size, and must impress everyone with the importance of a set of symbols which extends in broken lines from Arizona far into Oregon.
Fig. 55 exhibits engravings at Reveillé, Nevada. Great numbers of incised characters of various kinds are also reported from the walls of rocks flanking Walker river, near Walker lake, Nevada. Waving lines, rings, and what appear to be vegetable forms are of frequent occurrence. The human form and footprints are also depicted.
Fig. 56 is a copy of a drawing made by Lieut. A. G. Tassin, Twelfth U. S. Infantry, in 1877, of an ancient rock-carving at the base and in the recesses of Dead mountain and the abode of dead bad Indians according to the Mohave mythology. This drawing and its description is from a manuscript report on the Mohave Indians, in the library of the Bureau of Ethnology, prepared by Lieut. Tassin.
He explains some of the characters as follows:
(a) Evidently the two different species of mesquite bean.
(b) Would seem to refer to the bite of the cidatus, and to the use of a certain herb for its cure.
(c) Presumably the olla or water cooler of the Mohaves.
The whole of this series of petroglyphs is regarded as being Shinumo or Moki. They show a general resemblance to drawings in Arizona, known to have been made by the Moki Indians. The locality is within the territory of the Shoshonean linguistic division, and the drawings are in all probability the work of one or more of the numerous tribes comprised within that division.
On the north wall of Canyon de Chelly, one-fourth of a mile east of its mouth, are several groups of petroglyphs, consisting chiefly of various grotesque forms of the human figure, and also numbers of animals, circles, etc. A few of them are painted black, the greater portion consisting of rather shallow lines, which are in some places considerably weathered. Further up the canyon, in the vicinity of the cliff dwellings, are numerous small groups of pictographic characters, consisting of men and animals, waving or zigzag lines, and other odd figures.
Lieut. James H. Simpson (a), in his Journal of a Military Reconnoissance, etc., presents a number of plates bearing copies of inscriptions on rocks in the northwestern part of New Mexico, among which are those on the so-called “Inscription rock” at El Moro, here reproduced as Fig. 57. The petroglyphs are selected from the south face of the rock. Lieut. Simpson states that most of the characters are no higher than a man’s head, and that some of them are undoubtedly of Indian origin.
Among the many colored etchings and paintings on rock discovered by the Pacific railroad expedition in 1853-’54, Lieut. Whipple (c) notes those at Rocky dell creek, New Mexico, which were found between the edge of the Llano Estacado and the Canadian river. The stream flows through a gorge, upon one side of which a shelving sandstone rock forms a sort of cave. The roof is covered with paintings, some evidently ancient, and beneath are innumerable carvings of footprints, animals, and symmetrical lines. He also remarks (d) that figures cut upon a rock at Arch spring, near Zuñi, present some faint similarity to those at Rocky dell creek.
Near Ojo Pescado, in the vicinity of the ruins, are petroglyphs, also reported by Lieut. Whipple (d), which are very much weather-worn and have “no trace of a modern hand about them.”
Mr. Edwin A. Hill, of Indianapolis, in a letter, notes petroglyphs on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad, between Antonite and Espanola. Below Tres Piedras and near Espanola are rude sculptures, lining the valley on both sides of the road for a long distance, at least several miles. The canyon has a slope of about 45° and contains many bowlders, and on every available face pictographs are cut. Figures of arrows, hatchets, circles, triangles, bows, spears, turtles, etc., are outlined as if with some cutting-tool. The country had two years before been occupied by Apaches, but far greater age is attributed to the petroglyphs.
Other petroglyphs actually within the geographical area of New Mexico are so near the border that they are treated of in connection with those of Colorado.
Prof. E. D. Cope (a) gives a copy of figures which he found on the side of a ravine near Abiquiu, on the river Chama. They are cut in Jurassic sandstone of medium hardness, and are quite worn and overgrown with the small lichen which is abundant on the face of the rock.
Mr. Gilbert Thompson, of the U. S. Geological Survey, reports his observation of petroglyphs at San Antonio springs, 30 miles east of Fort Wingate, New Mexico. The human figure, in various forms, occurs, as well as numerous other characters, strikingly similar to those frequent in the country farther west occupied by the Moki Indians. The peculiarity of these figures is that the outlines are incised and that the depressions thus formed are filled with red, blue or white pigments. The interior of the figures is simply painted with one or more of the same colors.
Figs. 58 and 59 are reproductions of drawings of petroglyphs from Ojo de Benado, south of Zuñi, New Mexico. The manuscripts which once accompanied them, and which were forwarded to the Bureau of Ethnology in the usual official manner, have become separated from the sketches, and on those there are no indications of the collectors’ names.
The characters are very like others from several localities in the territory and in the adjacent region. The type is that of the Pueblos generally.
Mr. Bandelier, in conversation, reported having seen and sketched a petroglyph at Nambe, in a canyon about 2 miles east of the pueblo, also another at Cueva Pintada, about 17 miles by the trail northwest of Cochiti.
The following is extracted from Schoolcraft (c):
There is a pictographic Indian inscription [now obliterated] in the valley of the Hudson, above the Highlands, which from its antiquity and character appears to denote the era of the introduction of firearms and gunpowder among the aboriginal tribes of that valley. This era, from the well-known historical events of the contemporaneous settlement of New Netherlands and New France, may be with general accuracy placed between the years 1609, the date of Hudson’s ascent of that stream above the Highlands, and the opening of the Indian trade with the Iroquois at the present site of Albany, by the erection of Fort Orange, in 1614. * * *
In a map published at Amsterdam, in Holland, in 1659, the country, for some distance both above and below Esopus creek, is delineated as inhabited by the Waranawankongs, who were a totemic division or enlarged family clan of the Mohikinder. They spoke a well-characterized dialect of the Mohigan, and have left numerous geographical names on the streams and physical peculiarities of that part of the river coast quite to and above Coxsackie. The language is Algonquin.
Esopus itself appears to be a word derived from Seepu, the Minsi-Algonquin name for a river.
* * * The inscription may be supposed, if the era is properly conjectured, to have been made with metallic tools. The lines are deeply and plainly impressed. It is in double lines. The plumes from the head denote a chief or man skilled in the Indian medico-magical art. The gun is held at rest in the right hand; the left appears to support a wand. [The position of the arm may be merely a gesture.]
The reproduction here as Fig. 60 is from a rock on the western bank of the Hudson, at Esopus landing. It is presented mainly on account of the frequent allusions to it in literature.
Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports petroglyphs upon a gray gneissoid rock, a short distance east of Caney river, on the north side of the road from Asheville to Burnsville, North Carolina. The face of the surface is at an angle of 30° toward the south, and the sculptured area covers about 10 feet square. The characters consist chiefly of cup-shaped depressions, some about 2 inches deep, some being also connected. There are a few markings which appear to have been intended to represent footprints. The characters resemble, to some extent, those at Trap Rock gap, Georgia, and at the Juttaculla rock, North Carolina, on a branch of the Tuckasegee river, above Webster.
The above-described sculptured rock is on the property of Ellis Gardner, and is known as Gardner’s, or the “Garden rock.”
Mr. Mooney also reports that at Webster, North Carolina, there is one large rock bearing numerous petroglyphs, rings, cup-shaped depressions, fish-bone patterns, etc. He further states, upon the authority of Dr. J. M. Spainhour, of Lenoir, that upon a light gray rock measuring 4 feet by 30 are numerous cup-shaped petroglyphs, he having counted 215. The rock is on the Yadkin river, 4 miles below Wilkesboro, and is at times partly under water.
Dr. Hoffman, who in 1886 visited western North Carolina, gives the following account of colored pictographs found there by him.
“The locality known as ‘Paint rock’ is situated on the east or right bank of the French Broad river, about 100 yards above the Tennessee and North Carolina state line. The limestone cliff, which terminates abruptly near the river, measures about 100 feet in height and covers an area from side to side of exposure of at least 100 yards. The accompanying view (Fig. 61), taken from across the river, presents the wall of limestone rock and the position of the petroglyph, which is delineated in proper proportion nearly in the center of the illustration.
“The property belongs to Mr. J. W. Chockley, who has been living in the vicinity for about fifteen years. He states that during this time the pictograph has undergone some change on account of gradual disintegration or fracture of the rock. The first knowledge of the pictograph, according to local tradition, dates back about sixty years, and no information as to its import could be learned, either from the white residents, who are few in number, or the straggling Cherokee Indians who visit the railway station at odd intervals.”
The pictograph is peculiar in design, no animal forms being apparent but an indefinite number of short, straight lines at right angles to one another, as shown in Fig. 62. One-thirty-sixth actual size.
The characters are in dark red, probably a ferrous oxide, quantities of which are found in the neighborhood. The color appears to have penetrated the softer portions of the limestone, though upon the harder surfaces it has been removed by exposure to the elements. The lowermost figure appears to resemble a rude outline of a human form, with one arm lowered and reaching forward, though this is only a suggestion.
Upon the face of the rock, a few yards to the right of the above, are indistinct outlines of circles, several of which indicate central spots, and one, at least, has a line extending from the center downward for about 8 inches.
A large number of petroglyphs are reported from this state. It is sufficient to present the following examples extracted, with reproduced illustrations and abbreviated descriptions, from the Report of the Committee of the State Archæological Society, published in the Report of the Ohio State Board of Centennial Managers.
Fig. 63 is a copy of the petroglyph on the Newark Track rock.
It is described in the volume cited, pages 94, 95, as follows: