175 



^S> 



Figs. II, III and IV are painted, and are some of the most 

 curious I haye ever seen. Probably considerable of the detail has 

 been worn away, and we have left only an imperfect design. 



Fisr. IV. 



It cannot be determined whether these groups of drawings are 

 historical records or not, till we become intimately acquainted with 

 the descendants of the people who made them, and till they receive 

 much patient study. It would seem, however, that if a people had 

 the ability to represent ohjccts by sketches and paintings, that they 

 would soon discover that by certain combinations of these they 

 could represent ideas; that they could record for the benefit of 

 posterity their great migrations, battles, misfortunes. The inscrip- 

 tions at this ruin might possibly be the history of the .defense of 



