Chapter XII: Section 2: United States (4)

The famous pictured rocks on the Evansville pike, about 4 miles
from this place, have been a source of wonder and speculation for
more than a century, and have attracted much attention among the
learned men of this country and Europe. The cliff upon which these
drawings exist is of considerable size and within a short distance
of the highway above mentioned. The rock is a white sandstone,
which wears little from exposure to the weather, and upon its
smooth surface are delineated the outlines of at least fifty [?]
species of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, embracing in the
number panthers, deer, buffalo, otters, beavers, wildcats, foxes,
wolves, raccoons, opossums, bears, elk, crows, eagles, turkeys,
eels, various sorts of fish, large and small, snakes, etc. In the
midst of this silent menagerie of specimens of the animal kingdom is
the full length outline of a female form, beautiful and perfect in
every respect. Interspersed among the drawings of animals, etc., are
imitations of the footprints of each sort, the whole space occupied
being 150 feet long by 50 feet wide. To what race the artist
belonged or what his purpose was in making these rude portraits must
ever remain a mystery, but the work was evidently done ages ago.

The late P. W. Norris, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reported that he found petroglyphs in many localities along the Kanawha river, West Virginia. Engravings are numerous upon smooth rocks, covered during high water, at the prominent fords in the river, as well as in the niches or long shallow caves high in the rocky cliffs of this region. Rude representations of men, animals, and some characters deemed symbolic were found, but none were observed superior to, or essentially differing from those of modern Indians.

On the rocky walls of Little Coal river, near the mouth of Big Horse creek, are cliffs which display many carvings. One of the rocks upon which a mass of characters appear, is 8 feet in length and 5 feet in height.

About 2 miles above Mount Pleasant, Mason county, on the north side of the Kanawha river, are numbers of characters, apparently totemic. These are at the foot of the hills flanking the river.

On the cliffs near the mouth of the Kanawha river, opposite Mount Carbon, Nicholas county, are numerous pictographs. These appear to be cut into the sandstone rock.

Pictographs were lately seen at various points on the banks of the Kanawha river, both above and below Charleston, but since the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad some of the rocks bearing them have been destroyed. About 6 miles above Charleston there was formerly a rock lying near its water’s edge upon which, it is reported by old residents, were depicted the outline of a bear, turkey tracks, and other markings. Tradition told that this was a boat or canoe landing, used by the Indians in their travels when proceeding southward. The tribe was not designated. From an examination of the locality it was learned that this rock had been broken and used in the construction of buildings. It is said that a trail passing there led southward, and at a point 10 miles below the Kanawha river stood several large trees upon which were marks of red ocher or some similar pigment, at which point the trail spread or branched out in two directions, one leading southward into Virginia, the other southwest toward Kentucky.

On a low escarpment of sandstone facing Little Coal river, 6 or 8 miles above its confluence with Coal river and about 18 miles south of the Kanawha river, are depicted the outlines of animals, such as the deer, panther (?), etc., and circles, delineated in dark red, but rather faint from disintegration of the surface. The characters are similar in general appearance to those in Tazewell county, Virginia, and appear as if they might have been made by the same tribe. There are no peculiarities in the topography of the surrounding region that would suggest the idea of their having served as topographic indications, but they rather appear to be a record of a hunting party, and to designate the kinds of game abounding in the region.

Mr. L. V. McWhorter reports pictographs in a cave near Berlin, Lewis county, West Virginia. No details are given.

A petroglyph found in a rock shelter in West Virginia is also presented in Pl. XXXI.

WISCONSIN.

A large number of glyphs are incised on the face of a rock near Odanah, now a village of the Ojibwa Indians, 12 miles northeast from Ashland, on the south shore of lake Superior, near its western extremity. The characters were easily cut on the soft stone, so were also easily worn by the weather, and in 1887 were nearly indistinguishable. Many of them appeared to be figures of birds. An old Ojibwa Indian in the vicinity told the present writer that the site of the rock was formerly a well-known halting place and rendezvous, and that on the arrival of a party, or even of a single individual, the appropriate totemic mark or marks were cut on the rock, much as white men register their names at a hotel.

The Pictured cave of La Crosse valley, called Brown’s cave, is described by Rev. Edward Brown (_a_) as follows:

This curious cavern is situated in the town of Barre, 4 miles
from West Salem and 8 miles from La Crosse. * * *

Before the landslide it was an open shelter cavern, 15 feet
wide at the opening and 7 feet at the back end; greatest width, 16
feet; average, 13; length, 30 feet; height, 13 feet, and depth of
excavation after clearing out the sand of the landslide, 5 feet. The
pictures are mostly of the rudest kind, but differing in degree of
skill. Except several bisons, a lynx, rabbit, otter, badger, elk,
and heron, it is perhaps impossible to determine with certainty what
were intended or whether they represented large or small animals, no
regard being had to their relative sizes.

[Examples of the figures are here presented as Fig. 91.]

Perhaps _a_ indicates a bison or buffalo, and is the best
executed picture of the collection. Its size is 19 inches long by
15-1/2 inches from tip of the horns to the feet.

_b_ represents a hunter, with a boy behind him, in the act
of shooting an animal with his bow and arrow weapon. The whole
representation is 25 inches long; the animal from tip of tail to
end of horn or proboscis 12 inches, and from top of head to feet 7
inches; the hunter 11 inches high, the boy 4-1/2.

_c_ represents a wounded animal, with the arrow or weapon near
the wound. This figure is 21-3/4 inches from the lower extremity of
the nose to the tip of the tail, 8-3/4 inches from fore shoulders to
front feet, and 8 inches from the rump to the hind feet. The weapon
is 4-1/2 inches long by 5 inches broad from the tip of one prong or
barb to that of the other.

_d_ represents a chief with eight plumes and a war club, 11
inches from top of head to the lower extremity, and 6-3/4 inches
from the tip of the upper finger to the end of the opposite arm; the
war club 6-1/2 inches long.

Dr. Hoffman made a visit to this cave in August, 1888, to compare the pictographic characters with others of apparently similar outline and of known signification. He found but a limited number of the figures distinct, and these only in part, owing to the rapid disintegration of the sandstone upon which they were drawn. Many names and inscriptions had been incised in the soft surface by visitors, who also, by means of the smoke of candles, added grotesque and meaningless figures over and between the original paintings, so as to seriously injure the latter.

Mr. T. H. Lewis (_d_) describes the petroglyphs, a part of which is reproduced in Fig. 92, as follows:

Last November my attention was called to some rock sculptures
located about 2-1/2 miles northwest from Trempealeau, Wisconsin.
There is at the point in question an exposed ledge of the Potsdam
sandstone extending nearly one-eighth of a mile along the east side
of the lower mouth of the Trempealeau river, now known as the bay.
Near its north end there is a projection extending out about 7 feet
from the top of the ledge and overhanging the base about 10 feet.
The base of the ledge is 40 feet back from the shore, and the top of
the cliff at this point is 30 feet above the water. On the face of
the projection, and near the top, are the sculpture figures referred
to.

The characters designated _a_ _a_ are two so-called canoes,
somewhat crescent-shaped, but with some variation in outline; _b_
has the same form, but the additional upright portion overlaps it;
_c_ and _d_ are also of the same form as _a_, but _c_ is cut in the
bottom of _d_; _e_ probably represents a fort, and its length is
18-1/2 inches; _f_ is a nondescript, and it partly overlaps _d_;
_g_ is a nondescript four-legged animal, its length in a straight
line from the end of the nose to the tip of the tail being 10-1/2
inches; _h_ may be intended to represent a foot, but possibly it may
be a hand; it is 7-1/2 inches in length; _i_ is an outspread hand, a
little over 13 inches long; _j_ undoubtedly represents a foot and is
4-1/2 inches long; _k_ _k_ are of the same class as _a_.

The figures are not mere outlines, but intaglio, varying in depth from a quarter of an inch to fully 1 inch. Although the surface of the rock is rough the intaglios were rubbed perfectly smooth after they had been engraved by pecking or cutting.

WYOMING.

Several pictographs in Wyoming are described by Capt. William A. Jones, U. S. Army (_a_). They are reproduced here as Figs. 93, 94, and 95.

Fig. 93, found in the Wind river valley, Wyoming, was interpreted by members of a Shoshoni and Banak delegation to Washington in 1880 as “an Indian killed another.” The latter is very roughly delineated in the horizontal figure, but is also represented by the line under the hand of the upright figure, meaning the same dead person. At the right is the scalp taken and the two feathers showing the dead warrior’s rank. The arm nearest the prostrate foe shows the gesture for killed; concept, to put down, flat.

The same gesture appears in Fig. 94, from the same authority and locality. The scalp is here held forth, and the numeral (1) is indicated by the lowest stroke.

Fig. 95, from the same locality and authority, was also interpreted by the Shoshoni and Banak. It appears from their description that a Blackfoot had attacked the habitation of some of his own people. The right-hand upper figure represents his horse, with the lance suspended from the side. The lower figure illustrates the log house built against a stream. The dots are the prints of the horse’s hoofs, while the two lines running outward from the upper inclosure show that two thrusts of the lance were made over the wall of the house, thus killing the occupant and securing two bows and five arrows, as represented in the left-hand group. The right-hand figure of that group shows the hand raised in the attitude of making the gesture for kill.

The Blackfeet, according to the interpreters, were the only Indians in the locality mentioned who constructed log houses, and therefore the drawing becomes additionally interesting, as an attempt appears to have been made to illustrate the crossing of the logs at the corners, the gesture for which (log house) is as follows:

Both hands are held edgewise before the body, palms facing, spread the fingers, and place those of one hand into the spaces between those of the other, so that the tips of each protrude about an inch beyond.

Another and more important petroglyph was discovered on Little Popo-Agie, northwestern Wyoming, by members of Capt. Jones’s party in 1873. The glyphs are upon a nearly vertical wall of the yellow sandstone in the rear of Murphy’s ranch, and appear to be of some antiquity. Further remarks, with specimens of the characters, are presented below in this paper. (See Fig. 1091.)

Dr. William H. Corbusier, U. S. Army, in a letter to the writer, mentions the discovery of drawings on a sandstone rock near the headwaters of Sage creek, in the vicinity of Fort Washakie, Wyoming, and gives a copy which is presented as Fig. 96. Dr. Corbusier remarks that neither the Shoshoni nor the Arapaho Indians know who made the drawings. The two chief figures appear to be those of the human form, with the hands and arms partly uplifted the whole being inclosed above and on either side by an irregular line.

The method of grouping, together with various accompanying appendages, as irregular lines, spirals, etc., observed in Dr. Corbusier’s drawing, show great similarity to the Algonquian type, and resemble some engravings found near the Wind river mountains, which were the work of Blackfeet (Satsika) Indians, who, in comparatively recent times, occupied portions of the country in question, and probably also sketched the designs near Fort Washakie.

Fig. 97 is also reported from the same locality.