No. 4. 



Human foot-prints, fyc, on solid rock. 



117 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Human foot-prints in solid Limestone. 



Middletown, Delaware, Sept. 29th, 1842. 



Messrs. Editors, — In page 44 of the cur- 

 rent Volume of the Cabinet, I have observed 

 an article on human foot-prints in solid lime- 

 stone rock. The description of this rock, 

 and of its original location, as given in the 

 article alluded to, is so nearly correct, that 

 I should not have considered it necessary to 

 notice it, only from the fact that I had long 

 since drawn up for preservation, a descrip- 

 tion of this same stone, as well as of an- 

 other stone and specimen of an ancient 

 relic, which I considered a much greater 

 curiosity. But being only a humble me- 

 chanic, I thought, if published, it would be 

 passed over as unworthy of observation or 

 reinark from antiquaries, geologists, or na- 

 turalists, or others able to treat on such sub- 

 jects; as articles generally are, that emanate 

 from such humble sources. 



Mr. Paul Anderson states in a letter dated 

 October 11th, 1841, that "A Mr. John Jones 

 claimed a sort of ownership" to that rock, 

 from the fact, that he, Jones, was the first 

 discoverer of it that season, and that he em- 

 ployed Jones to " cut out the slab for Mr, 

 Frederick Rapp." Now Mr. Anderson writes 

 from memory, near a quarter of a century 

 after this transaction took place, and as he 

 was only an agent in the affair, he might 

 have made a slight error in his statement, — 

 unintentionally, no doubt. This error will 

 be in part corrected, when I state, that on 

 my first landing upon the shore at St. Louis, 

 from my small keel-boat, on the 25th of Oc- 

 tober, 1816, near twenty-six years ago, the 

 first thing of any note, that met my eye, 

 was these foot-prints; and before I again 

 stepped on board of my boat, I ascertained 

 from a gentleman, then on the shore, a brick- 

 layer, an old acquaintance from Philadel 

 phia, a Mr. James Loper, that any person 

 who wished, could quarry stone at that time, 

 anywhere along the shore ; and that the 

 shore was considered public property. I 

 then made up my mind at once, that that 

 stone should soon be my property. And in 

 the course of the following winter I had it 

 cut out and hauled up and placed against 

 my yard picquet fence, on its edge, with the 

 foot-prints inward, so as to prevent their 

 being defaced by mischievous persons. It 

 stood in such a position that the prints could 

 be easily seen from the inside of the fence ; 

 and I suppose it was there visited by thou- 

 sands : more persons probably saw them 

 there, than had ever seen them before. It 

 was there that my friend Paul Anderson, 

 first saw them, and not in their original bed 



on the margin of the river, as his letter in- 

 dicates. Mr. Anderson did not arrive at St. 

 Louis, until the spring of 1818 or 1819, I 

 am not sure which, — but not till more than 

 a year after I had placed the stone in ques- 

 tion, against my fence. Had I not taken it 

 up at that time, it might have been forever 

 lost, as some Frenchmen were at work with- 

 in a few yards of it, when I commenced cut- 

 ting it out. They considered it nothing worth 

 preserving, as they said they had seen and 

 quarried near these same foot-prints, other 

 small foot-prints, and the prints of small 

 children's hands. 



There is a mark on the face of this stone, 

 which I see has escaped the observation of 

 all those gentlemen who have visited and 

 remarked upon it, which I considered as 

 worth preserving with the foot-prints; and 

 in cutting out the stone I was careful to 

 preserve them. The individual who made 

 those foot-prints, stood facing, or looking up 

 the shore, and while in that position, it ap- 

 pears as if he had reached forward and with 

 a small stick, or with his finger, had made 

 an irregular, or oval mark near his toes. 

 The impression of the oval mark was about 

 the depth all around, as that of the foot- 

 prints ; and in laying off the stone for cut- 

 ting out, I brought the inner side of the 

 oval mark to about the centre of the stone, 

 thereby preserving the whole entire.* 



The stone, at the time it was cut from its 

 original bed, was very brittle and shelly ; 

 much more so than those of the ledges 

 higher up from the water, and nearer the 

 surface of the earth — owing, perhaps, to its 

 being so nearly between wind and water; it 

 required great care in taking it up, to pre- 

 vent its crumbling. It had to be cut with 

 chissels entirely through the stratum, which 

 was about one foot thick. 



It is true that I had many extravagant 

 prices offered for it, while in my possession, 

 though previous to that, but little value had 

 been set upon it. I think Governor Wil- 

 liam Clarke told me he had offered a French- 

 man two dollars to quarry it for him. It 

 cost me thirty-five dollars to quarry it and 

 place it against my fence. Had an unskil- 

 ful hand attempted to quarry and haul it up, 

 ten chances to one, it would have been de- 

 stroyed : and after I had sold it, although its 

 removal was superintended by Mr. Ander- 

 son and Mr. Baker, Mr. Rapp's business 

 man, they broke it in two, and much de- 



* Although this mark, or scroll, was not, for brevity's 

 sake, alluded to by L. N. in his communication, page 

 4-1, Cab., yet. in the original article in Silliman's Jour- 

 nal, from which L. N. drew his information, it is men- 

 tioned, and the description there, very well corresponds 

 with this of Jones.— Ed. 



