SOME REMAINS of ANTiqiTiTY. 195 



Eighthly. 'Ihere are feveral reafons for believing, 

 that the anceftors of fome of the prefent races of Indians 

 were acquainted with a kind of hieroglyphick-writing, 

 very fuperior to the rude pidture-writing now in ufe 

 among them.* We difcover the veftiges of fuch hiero- 

 glyphicks among the Mickmacks of Nova-Scotia, and 

 among fome other tribes. Moreover, we difcover many 

 proofs ot the ancient exigence of hieroglyphicks in vari- 

 ous parts of North- America.-f- In the weftern parts of 

 Virginia, 1 have examined a large ftratum of rock, 

 which is engraven with hundreds of hieroglyphicks.;|; 

 They are, doubtlefs, very ancient; and murt, I think, 

 have been the work of a people acquainted with the ufe 

 of iron inftruments, or with hardened metallick inftru- 

 ments of fome kinds. In examining the China Illujlrata 

 of the celebrated Athanafius Kircher, and the Hi/iorico- 



* See a paper, by Sir William Johnfon, in the PhUofophkal Tranfa.^ions 

 of the Royal Society of London, Vol. LXIII. p. 143. alfo Bernard Ro- 

 mans's Conafe Natural Hijlory of Eafi and Wejl Florida, ISjc. p. 102 and 103, 

 New-York, 1776. On the fubjeft of this pidure-writing, the reader may 

 confult La Hontan, Lafitau, and others, who have written on the fubjeft of 

 America. 



f See, not to mention other writers, on this fubjeft, Profeflbr Kalm's 

 Travels into North America, Vol. III. p. 123, 124, 125, 126, and 127. 

 Englifli Tranflation. London: 1770 and 1 771. 



:j; Thefe infcriptions are engraven on a large ftratum of rocks, on the 

 fouth-call fifle of the River-Ohio, about two miles below the mouth of 

 Indian or King's-Creek, which empties itfelf into the Ohio about fifty miles 

 below Fort-Pitt. The greater part of the rocks lies nearly horizontally, and 

 fo near to the edge of the river, that at times the water entirely covers them. 

 At the diflance of a few yards, however, from the bank of the river, there 

 are feveral large maj'cs of the fame fpecies of rock, on which alfo I obferv- 

 ed infcriptions : thefe, it is probable, have been formerly attached to the 

 horizontal ftratum, and have either been removed by the hand of man, 

 or by fome violent inundation of the river. It is, at leaft, certain, that the 

 infcriptions upon both are of the fame kind, and there caji be little doubt that 

 they have both been engraven at the fame time. 



The horizontal ftratum of rocks extends, for a confiderable diftance, 

 along the border of the Ohio : but, I cannot, with certainty, affirm how 

 large a portion of it is engraven with the infcriptions, or marks. 



3 Geographical 



