358 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Mr. Schoolcraft thought they might belong to a race anterior to the 

 present Indians, or to a race unacquainted with the method of tanning 

 skins. The outlines of the muscles of the feet were represented with 

 great accuracy, hence Mr. Schoolcraft seemed to incline to. the belief that 

 they were impressions. The length of each foot was 10^ inches, the 

 breadth across the toes at right angles to the former line 4 inches, and 

 the greatest spread of toes 4£ inches, diminishing to 2£ inches at the 

 heel. Directly in front of the prints and approaching within a few 

 inches of the left foot is a well impressed and deep mark, having some 

 resemblance to a scroll, whose greatest length is 2 feet 7 inches and 

 greatest breadth 12J inches. Mr. Schoolcraft addressed a letter to the 

 Hon. Thomas H. Benton in regard to the foot-marks and received an 

 answer, which I copy, as follows: 



"Washington City, April 29, 1822. 



"Sir: Yours of the 27th was received yesterday. The prints of the 

 human feet which you mention I have seen hundreds of times. They 

 were on the uncovered limestone rock in front of the town of Saint 

 Louis. The prints were seen when the country was first settled, and 

 had the same appearance then as now. No tradition can tell anything 

 about them. They look as old as the rock. They have the same fine 

 polish which the attrition of the sand and water have made upon the 

 rest of the rock which is exposed to their action. I have examined them 

 often with great attention. They are not handsome, but exquisitely 

 natural, both in the form and position — spread-toed, and were of course 

 anterior to the use of narrow shoes. I do not think them 'impressions,' 

 but the work of hands, and refer their existence to the age of the 

 mounds upon the American bottom and above the town of Saint Louis. 

 My reasons for this opinion are: 1, the hardness of the rock; 2, the 

 want of tracks leading to and from them; 3, the difficulty of supposing 

 a change so instantaneous and apropos as must have taken place in the 

 formation of the rock, if impressed when soft enough to receive such deep 

 and distinct tracks. Opposed to this opinion are: 1, the exquisiteness 

 of the workmanship ; 2, the difficulty of working in such hard material 

 without steel or iron. 



"A block 6 or 8 feet long and 3 or 4 feet wide, containing the prints, 

 was cut out by Mr. John Jones, in Saint Louis, and sold to Mr. Eappe, 

 of Indiana, and under his orders removed to his establishment called 

 Harmony, on the left bank of the Wabash. 

 "Very respectfully, yours, 



"TITOS, n. BENTON. 



" n. R. Schoolcraft, Esq." 



A letter from Prof. E. T. Cox, of Indiana, informs me that he remem- 

 bc is the stone very well; that it is still at New Harmony; it is by 

 4 fei't superficially and 8 inches thick, and rich in fossils of the Sainl 

 Louis group of the Sub-carboniferous. Trofessor Cox is of the opiniou 



