REMARKS ON ABORIGINAL ART. II5 



who occupy the country midway between these extremes. Mr. P. 

 W. Sheafer furnishes some sketches* from the Susquehanna river, 

 near Safe Harbor, Penna, and from Venango county, in the same 

 State, which clearly indicate their Algonkian origin and may be at- 

 tributed to the Delaware Indians. Typical Algonkian petroglyphs 

 are also found in several other localities in western Pennsylvania 

 and West Virginia, which were probably made by the Delawares 

 and Shawnees, respectively. By means of these typical characters 

 and almost unvarying styles of specific reproduction in various 

 regions, the former geographic distribution of the Algonkian tribes 

 can now be readily traced with considerable accuracy, and the same 

 may be said with regard to the Shoshonian family. Continued 

 research and the collection of etchings and paintings are highly 

 important in the verification of many incomplete data, and for 

 necessary materials with reference to other interesting linguistic 

 groups of Indians. 



While in the vicinity of Los Angeles, Cal., a short time since, I 

 secured an interesting specimen of an Indian gravestone bearing 

 incised characters of whales, etc., and with an ornamental border 

 running around the edge of the tablet. The slab of stone is only 

 a portion of the original — which had once served to indicate the 

 resting place of an Indian — but enough remains to convey the prob- 

 able import of the inscription. The stone measures about six by 

 ten inches in size, varies from five-eighths to one inch in thickness, 

 is rather triangular in form, and consists of a dull reddish-brown 



* Hist. Map of Penna., by P. W. Sheafer. Pub. Fund of the Hist. Soc. of 

 Penna. Philadelphia, 1875. 



These characters, or what appear to l)e the identical ones, were previously de- 

 scribed and figured in the Jour. Anthrop. Institute of New York, Vol. I, 1871-72, 

 pp. 66, 67, Figg. 25, 26. They are here located "in the bed of the Susquehanna 

 River, Lancaster Co., Penna., known as the 'Big' and ' Little Indian Rock.' 

 The groups," the author states, "are relatively more widely distributed laterally 

 on the rock, than in the cuts, in which, however, they preserve, in other respects, 

 their true relations." 



The fact of their inaccurate reproduction may account for the dififeience of ap- 

 pearance between the two sets of illustrations. 



In the same volume are illustrations of sculptured rocks from'Belmont Co., 

 Ohio, in imitation of footprints of birds, mammals, and human beings, among 

 which are the outline of a serpent. The general grouping of the sculptured im- 

 pressions, together with the presence of the snake, shows marked similarity to 

 those occurring twelve miles south of Benton, Cal. 



