-I 



/ 



230 Remarks on (he Prints ^f Human Fett. 



reptiles, which are ahaiiOanily found, not onlj in the al- 

 luvial soils, but also oicasionally in the rock strata of Eu- 

 rope and America, suflkiently indicate the revolutions and 

 changes which the earth's surface has undergone at com- 

 paratively recent periods. We wish Ofily to discover the 

 remains of man, in similar situafions, to dale these changes 

 suhsequent \o the Mosaical period of his creation ; and 

 here, apparently, we have found them! But the facts de- 

 mand a careful investigation. 



'^ The drawings which 1 have taken of these impressions, 

 the inspection of the original, now at Harmony, and the 

 best reflections I have been able to bestow upon attending 

 facts and circumstances, concur in my mind, to establish 

 the conclusion, that they are natural, and genuine ; and 

 consequently, that the discovery should be seized upon to 

 erect a new genus of organic remains, of which the specific 

 type should be any portion of the human frame, recognized 

 in the anatomical nomenclature : But it is not conceived 

 to be necessary here, to state the circumstances which in- 

 duce me to consider these prints as the result of a local sub- 

 mersion of the countr}' extending north of the Grand Tone 

 on the Mississippi. 



I 



.* 



^* I have the honor to be sir, 



With high respect 



Your mo5t obedient servant, 



HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT."' 



^^SlR, 



Coh Benton in Reply, 



'• Washington City, April 20th, 182-2. 



*' Yours of the tw^enty-seventh was received yester- 

 day. The ^* prints'' of the human feet which you mention, 

 I liave seen hundreds of times. They were on the uncov- 

 ered limestone rock in front of the town of St, Louis. This 

 rock forms the basis of the country, and is deposited in 

 horizontal strata, and in low water is uncovered lo the ex- 

 tent of three miles \n length on the bank of the Missis?ippij 

 and, in some places, from one to two hundred feet wide. 



* 



* I am not aMe to refer to auy adeqnnte description of this boltl and pic- 

 turesque feature in the jjeolo^ of the Mississippi vaUey. It is cursorily 

 m<ftttioned in my View of the Lead Minea of Missouri. " H. R. ^- 



