Human Foot-Prinis in Solid Limestone. 23 
are not the impressions of feet accustomed to a close shoe, the 
toes being very much spread, and the foot flattened in a man- 
ner that happens.to those who have been habituated to a great 
length of time without shoes. Notwithstanding this cireum- 
stance, the prints are strikingly natural, exhibiting every muscu- 
lar impression and swell of the heel and toes, with a precision 
and faithfulness to nature, which I have not been able to copy 
with perfect exactness in the present drawing. The length of 
each foot, as indicated by the prints, is ten anda half inches, 
and the width across the spread of the toes four inches, Which 
diminishes. to two and a half inches at the ball of the heel, 
indicating, as it is thought, a stature of the common size. 
“This rock presents a plain and smooth surface , having acquired 
a polish from the sand and water, to which its original position pe- 
riodically subjected it, Upon this smooth surface, commencing in 
front of the tracks, there is a kind of scroll, which is two anda 
half feet in length; the shape of this is very irregular, and not 
equally plain and _ perfect in all parts, and would convey to the 
observer the idea of a man idly making with his fingers, or with 
a smooth stick, fanciful figures upon a-soft surface; some pretend 
to observe in this scroll the figure of an Indian bow, but this in- 
ference did not appear to any of our party: to be justified. 
“ Every appearance will warrant the conclusion that these im- 
pressions were made.ata time when the rock was soft enough to 
receive them by pressure, and that the marks of feet are natural . 
i genuine. Such was the opinion of Gov. Cass and myself, 
or 1ed upon the. -spot, and there is nothing that I have subse- 
quently seen to alter this View ; ae Senge 
it will be observed by: a letter. which i is. transmitted with these 
_ remarks, that Col. Benton entertains a different opinion, and sup- 
poses them to be the result of human labor, at the same period 
of time when those enigmatical mounds upon the “ American 
bottom,” and above the town of St. Louis, were constructed. 
The reasons which have induced him to reject the opinion of 
their being organic remains are these: 
“1st. The hardness of the rock. 
_ “2d. The want of tracks leading to.and from them. 
* “34. The difficulty of supposing a change so instantaneous 
and apropos as must have taken sail in the formation of the rock 
