REMARKS ON ABORIGINAL ART. Ill 



temporary lodges. As practiced to-day, when erecting a temporary 

 shelter lodge, stones are placed around the surface required, against 

 which branches of trees and shrubs are placed and interwoven, thus 

 offering some shelter against wind and rain. Amongst these ruins 

 were discovered large cjuantities of obsidian flakes, arrow-heads, 

 and knives, the exposed surfaces of many pieces having assumed an 

 ashen hue from exposure and weathering. 



The southernmost group of etchings is eighteen miles south of 

 Benton ; the next group two miles above that, at the Chalk Grade ; 

 another, three miles f;^irther north; a fourth, half a mile north of 

 the preceding; then a fifth, which is twelve and a half miles south 

 of Benton and five and a half miles above the first-named. The 

 last-named locality is the one first noticed in 1871, and contains 

 the greatest number of characters. The rocks bearing them trend 

 around toward the northwest, along the faces of which the figures 

 continue, indicating a direction toward a low pass in the Benton 

 Range through which the nearest route is found to reach the old 

 camp above mentioned. The country over which these records are 

 scattered is arid beyond description and destitute of water and 

 vegetation. It is evident that the records were prepared under 

 trying circumstances, and the purpose for which they were placed 

 there was undoubtedly something more than merely to serve as in- 

 dications of direction. 



The Indians, who at present live about the town of Benton, are 

 Pai-Utas, but they are unacquainted with the signification of these 

 characters, and further state that they do not know by whom they 

 were made. Were it not for their superstitious nature, and their 

 suspicions regarding the apparent inquisitiveness of the whites re- 

 garding these etchings, some information might possibly be ob- 

 tained. 



After making careful drawings of all the characters which I could 

 find, and which are embraced in the Owen's Valley series, and upon 

 repeated comparisons with those of other localities, at present 

 known to us, within a radius of several hundred miles, I fail to dis- 

 cover any marked specific resemblance, with the exception of those 

 characters representing what appears to be the human form. There 

 are several animal forms, and imprints of the human foot, the tracks 

 of the grizzly bear — specified by large claws, — serpents, zigzag 

 lines, and many anomalous figures. All of these form but a small 



