PIPESTONE AND ROCK COUNTIES. 555 



Indian inscriptions.] 



since 1875, the annual sale being from fifty to a hundred cords, at three 

 dollars per cord, with an increasing demand. The rock here lies in layers 

 from six inches to two feet thick. The outside is usually the hardest. 

 Samples from Mr. Shoemaker's quarry have been taken to Minneapolis for 

 trial as millstones, of the kind called "enders." One piece sent for this 

 purpose weighed five thousand pounds. Deeper within, the stone is most 

 apt to be red; near the surface it is faded to a reddish gray. 



In the S. W. of section 25, Mr. Lary McDermott has similarly quarried 

 more or less during the past ten years, averaging about fifty cords per year, 

 at three dollars per cord. 



In these excavations upon the face of the cliff the rock often shows 

 ripple-marked surfaces, and an oblique lamination of the sand grains. 



ARCHAEOLOGY. 



On the glaciated surface of the quartzyte about the "three maidens", 

 which is kept clean by the rebound of the winds, are a great many rude 

 inscriptions which were made by pecking out the rock with some sharp- 

 pointed instrument, or by the use of other pieces of quartzyte. They are 

 of different sizes and dates, the latter being evinced by their manner of 

 crossing and interfering, and by the evident difference in the weight of the 

 instruments used. They generally represent some animal such as the turtle, 

 bear, wolf, buffalo, elk, and the human form. The "crane's foot" is the most 

 common; next is the image of men like No. 18, on plate J; next the turtle, 

 like No. 12, or No. 5. It would seem as if any warrior or hunter who had 

 been successful, and happened to pass here, left his tribute of thanks to the 

 great spirit in a rude representation of his game, and perhaps a figure of 

 himself, on the rocks about these boulders; or, perhaps, had in a similar 

 way, invoked the good offices of the spirits of his clan when about to 

 enter on some expedition. In some cases there is a connection of several 

 figures by a continuous line, chipped in the surface of the rock, in such a 

 manner as if some legend or adventure were narrated, but for the most 

 part the figures are isolated.* This is the "sacred ground" of the locality. 

 Such markings can be seen at no other place, though there'is abundance of 

 bare, smooth rock.f The excavation of the surface of the rock is very 



w TT*S"? pare Vo1 : n Bulletins of the U. S. geological and geographical survey of the territories. 1876. p. 3-Article of 

 in Ohio ef>> n anclent rulns of southwestern Colorado. Col. Charles Whittlesey has described rock inscriptions 

 ^Similar inscriptions are found on the red qnartzyte in Cottonwood county. See p. 501. 



