INSCRIBED ROCKS. 



297 



Fig. 205. At the distance of a few rods from these is a small rock, four feet 

 high by six in length. Upon its vertical face are cut the head and shoulders of an elk. 

 The figure is faithfully executed, of full size, and in point of spirit can hardly be 

 excelled by any outline representation. The savage artist who worked this head, 



^^^-:^ 



with his rude instruments, into the living rock, must have been a close observer of 

 nature. He undoubtedly stood at the head of his profession — an Indian Landseer ! 

 Below this head is a rude representation of some object, probably a bow, an arrow 

 from which is entering the neck of the elk. 



There are unquestionably other rocks, in this immediate vicinity, covered over 

 with earth and rubbish from the avalanche. The labors of the excavator would 

 doubtless be rewarded with other discoveries ; the employment however of some 

 less primitive means than sharpened sticks and the naked hands can be feelingly 

 recommended. 



After leaving the vicinity of these rocks, it was ascertained that three miles 

 higher up the stream, at a point known as the " Falls of the Guyandotte," there 

 are others of a similar character. The figure of a man, with an upraised toma- 

 hawk, and that of a fox or other animal, are cut in the vertical face of the 

 cliflT, over which the river lately flowed, but which is now left exposed by some 

 change in the channel of the stream. 



The rocks above described occur in a sunny nook a short distance from the 

 river, at a point where there is a small but beautiful interval of land. There is 

 here a small earth circle and mound, showing that the race of the mounds pene- 

 trated thus far up the stream. 



The rocks are weather-worn fragments of the coarse sandstone of the coal series, 

 which breaks with a tolerably smooth and regular fracture, presenting surfaces well 

 calculated for the kind of rude sculpture here exhibited. The lines upon the hori- 

 zontal faces of the rocks are much less distinct than those upon their sides. They 

 seem nevertheless to have been cut deeper, and are more elaborate. Those upon 

 the vertical faces of the rocks seem to be little defaced, and probably are much in the 

 same condition in which they were left by the sculptors. They are, for the most 



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