118 



Human foot-prints, §c, on solid rock. 



Vol. VII. 



faced the prints, before they had removed it 

 twenty yards from where it had stood a long 

 time, and acquired a good deal of hardness. 

 Though but little value was set upon it 

 while it was daily seen by the citizens of 

 St. Louis, many regrets were expressed 

 when it was about to be removed from the 

 shores of the Mississippi, and no one re- 

 gretted its removal more than I did. 



Your correspondent, L. N., quotes from 

 Dr. Owen, who says, "we must admit the 

 probability, that the aborigines of North 

 America were unacquainted with the use of 

 iron tools." With Dr. Owen and all other 

 writers on that side of the subject, I must 

 beg leave to disagree, as a specimen of a 

 most ingeniously wrought metalic instru- 

 ment was found by me, the construction of 

 which must have been long anterior to the 

 date of the foot-prints, or to the erection of 

 the mounds on the "American bottom," as 

 its high location will show. 



But I must stop short and refer you to my 

 original notes, made long since, upon this 

 subject, and not made public, for the reasons 

 set forth in the beginning of this communi- 

 cation. That vast country has undergone 

 great changes upon the face of it. They 

 are indicated by the marks of the abrasion 

 of the water, several hundred feet above the 

 present level of the river Mississippi, which 

 show plainly on the bluff on both sides of the 

 river, at the " Grand Tower."* One of my 

 limited capacity, or means of obtaining 

 knowledge, should not venture a single re- 

 mark upon these changes, nor upon the race 

 of men that then existed, or the age in which 

 they flourished : nor will I at this time. 

 Respectfully yours, John Jones. 



In 1818 I resided in St. Louis, and was 

 engaged in the erection of the cathedral 

 that has been taken down some time since. 

 While laying the foundation with stone, I 

 discovered, and in my wish to preserve, I 

 destroyed, by an unlucky stroke of the ham- 

 mer, what I considered a very ancient speci- 

 men of art. I had broken a flat stone about 

 eighteen inches square in three parts, and 

 upon turning up one piece of it, I discovered 

 something in the shape of a part of the 

 blade of a sword ; and upon turning up the 

 adjoining piece, it showed a continuance of 

 the blade. This induced me to turn up the 

 other piece also, and this showed a handle, 

 or hilt, with the guards, &c. The sword 



* The Grand Tower is a fast rock, or island— a t<rcat 

 mass of stone, several hundred feet in circumference, 

 and is estimated by some travellers to be 200 feel hi<rh. 

 It is situated in tin; Mississippi, nearest the Missouri 

 shore, about halfway between St. Genevieve and Cape 

 Girardeau. J. J. 



appeared to be about the size and shape of a 

 dress sword, worn at that time by Captain 

 Magee, of the U. S. army. It was about 

 fourteen inches long, from hilt to point, and 

 very crooked. That part of the handle that 

 is generally of bone, or ivory, was black, as 

 if of ebony, and twisted, and reeded, and 

 appeared petrified. All the metal part, in- 

 cluding the blade, guards, pins through the 

 handle, and rivets, whether of steel, iron, 

 silver, or whatever metal they were made, 

 showed their size and proportion as plainly 

 as they would in that described as worn by 

 Captain Magee. Upon the discovery, I called 

 all hands that were engaged about the build- 

 ing, to look at it. They all concurred with 

 me in the opinion, that it was a petrifiedf 

 sword, and that it must have fallen upon the 

 mud, or earth, previously to the mud, or earth 

 turning to stone. It was but slightly em- 

 bedded in the stone. Unfortunately I had 

 not the presence of mind, or I might have 

 preserved it entire, by simply cementing the 

 slab of stone, which was about four inches 

 thick, and fastening it in a box, like a plate 

 of glass in a frame. The metal part had 

 the appearance and consistence of rusted 

 metal, although it retained its full size and 

 shape. The handle, from its hardness, 

 though broken into three pieces, I preserved 

 several years, but finally lost thezn. The 

 balance of the sword fell, or crumbled with 

 the tap of the hammer. Immediately after 

 its destruction, I went down to the quarries 

 with the view of ascertaining its original 

 position, or location. I found the men at 

 work about ten feet below the surface of the 

 rock, which at that place, was nearly bare 

 of earth above ; and so far from the face of 

 the rock, or river bluff, as to admit an ox 

 team to turn in and back, for conveniently 

 loading — say about 30 feet. The stone in 

 that quarry is of the best limestone. It lies 

 in horizontal strata, from one inch to one 

 foot in thickness. The quarry was on the 

 lot of Rene Paul, Esq., and immediately in 

 the rear of the stone house in which he then 

 lived and kept store. This rocky bluff was 

 at that time and place, about 40 feet above 

 the ordinary high-water mark — nearly per- 

 pendicular, and much furrowed, as if by the 

 abrasion of the water, as the bluff of that 

 river on both sides, and also the shores of its 

 tributaries in many places show. 



At the time spoken of, I had a curious 

 specimen of petrifaction in my possession. 

 It was a stone which I cut out something 

 higher up the river, than where the sword 

 was found, and if my memory serves me, 



t Probably the metal was converted into a carbonate 

 of iron,— Ed. 



