MUMMIES MADE MODERN. 107 



the 'track, running between them. Two sandstone 

 blocks, each weighing several hundred pounds, lay 

 in front of one of the stores, and there, sure enough, 

 impressed clearly and deeply upon their surface were 

 the tracks of human feet. They had been discovered 

 by a Mr. J. B. Hamilton on the adjacent bluffs. 



There was something weird and startling in tliis 

 voice from those long-forgotten ages ages no less 

 remote than when the ridge we were standing upon 

 was a portion of a lake shore. The man who trod 

 those sands, the professor informed us, perished from 

 the face of the earth countless ages before the oldest 

 mummy was laid away in the caves of Egypt ; and 

 yet people looked at the shriveled Egyptian, and 

 thought that they were holding converse with one who 

 lived close upon the time of the oldest inhabitant. 

 They wrested secrets from his tomb, and called them 

 very ancient. And now this dweller beside the great 

 lakes had lifted his feet out of the sand to kick the 

 mummy from his pedestal of honor in the museum, as 

 but a being of yesterday, in comparison with himself. 



This discovery was soon afterward extensively 

 noticed in the newspapers, and the specimens are 

 now in the collection made by our party at Topeka. 

 It is but fair to say that a difference of opinion exists 

 in regard to these imprints. Many scientific men, 

 among whom is Professor Cope, affirm that they 

 must be the work of Indians long ago, as the age 

 of the rock puts it beyond the era of man, while 

 others attribute them to some lower order of animal, 

 with a foot resembling the human one. For my own 



part, after careful examination, I accept our profes- 

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