G. NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 329 



rows of Harpeth. It may not be amiss to state here that 

 there can be no question of the artificial origin of all these 

 marks, the similitude of the human foot being a favorite form 

 of picture-writing among the aborigines. Several well-ex- 

 ecuted specimens are in the National Museum at Washing- 

 ton, and others are to be found elsewhere. They are usually 

 executed in limestone, slate, or sandstone, and are of very 

 rude workmanship, notwithstanding all encomiums upon 

 their marvelous perfection. On close examination they will 

 be found cut through the lamination of the rock, instead of 

 indenting it, as would be the case if produced by a naked 

 foot traversing a surface in a plastic condition. 



ANCIENT STONE FOET IN INDIANA. 



Professor Cox gives an interesting account of an ancient 

 stone fort in Indiana, in which a break in the natural wall 

 of an ancient fortification was protected by an artificial wall 

 seventy-five feet in height, made by laying up loose stone, 

 mason fashion, but without mortar. The base for sixty-five 

 feet in height follows the slope of the hills, and then rises ten 

 feet vertically. Around the southern terminus of the point 

 there is an artificial stone wall ten feet high, connecting the 

 two natural walls, of Niagara limestone, and forming a com- 

 plete barrier to the approach of foes. Numerous mounds of 

 earth occur inside the wall, and within the line of these there 

 is dug a ditch four feet deep and twenty feet wide, w T hich re- 

 ceives the drainage from the crown of the hill. This inter- 

 esting prehistoric work is situated fourteen miles above the 

 falls of the Ohio River, in Clark County, Indiana. 



DALL'S ETHNOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN ALASKA. 



In 1872 Mr. William II. Dall made some interesting dis- 

 coveries of prehistoric remains in a cave on Amaknak Island, 

 situated in Captain's Bay, Unalashka, which he supposed ex- 

 hausted the subject. In 1873, however, he found that he had 

 left undisturbed a still lower stratum, and finally cleaned out 

 the entire cave down to the bed rock. He ascertained that 

 the whole interior of the cave had been painted over with a 

 red pigment, or chalky ore of iron, above which was a bed 

 of organic mould, about two feet in its greatest depth, in 

 which were found three skeletons, surrounded by a rough 



