DISTRIBUTION OF PETROGEYPIIS IN NORTH AMERICA. 



Etchings or paintings on rocks in North America are distributed gen- 

 erally. 



They are found throughout the extent of the continent, on bowlders 

 formed by the sea waves or polished by ice of the glacial epoch; on the 

 faces of rock ledges adjoining streams; on the high walls of canons 

 and cliffs; on the sides and roofs of caves; in short, wherever smooth 

 surfaces of rock appear. Drawings have also been discovered on stones 

 deposited in mounds and eaves. Yet while these records are so fre- 

 quent, there are localities to be distinguished in which they are espe- 

 cially abundant and noticeable. Also they differ markedly in character 

 of execution and apparent subject-matter. 



An obvious division can be made between characters etched or pecked 

 and those painted without incision. This division in execution coin- 

 cides to a certain extent with geographic areas. So far as ascertained, 

 painted characters prevail perhaps exclusively throughout Southern 

 California, west and southwest of the Sierra Nevada. Pictures, either 

 painted or incised, are found in perhaps equal frequency in the area ex- 

 tending eastward from the Colorado River to Georgia, northward into 

 West Virginia, and in general along the course of the Mississippi River. 

 In some cases the glyphs are both incised and painted. The remain- 

 ing parts of the United States show rock-etchings almost exclusive of 

 paintings. 



It is proposed with with the accumulation of information to portray 

 the localities of these records upon a chart accompanied by a full de- 

 scriptive text. In such chart will be designated their relative frequency, 

 size, height, position, color, age, and other particulars regarded as im- 

 portant. With such chart and list the classification and determination, 

 now merely indicated may become thorough. 



In the present paper a few only of the more important localities will 

 be mentioned; generally those which are referred to under several ap- 

 propriate heads in various parts of the paper. Notices of some of these 

 have been published; but many of them are publicly mentioned for the 

 first time in this paper, knowledge respecting them having been obtained 

 by the personal researches of the officers of the Bureau of Ethnology, 

 or by their correspondents. 



NORTHEASTERN ROCK CARVINGS. 



A large number of known and described pictographs on rocks occur 

 in that portion of the United States and Canada at one time in the pos- 

 session of the several tribes constituting the Algonkian linguistic stock. 



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