MAI.I.EKY.J 



PETROGLYPHS IN NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA. ■ 29 



the figures, showing some of the pictographs, at least, to have been 

 the work of modern Indians. Others were of undoubted antiquity, and 

 the signs and symbols intended, doubtless, to commemorate some great 

 event. (See Ex. Doe. ~No. 41, 30th Cong., 1st sess. (Emory's Recon- 

 naissance), 184S, p. 89; 111. opposite p. SO, and on p. 90.) 



Characters upon rocks, of questionable antiquity, are reported in the 

 last-mentioned volume, Plate, p. 63, to occur on the Gila River, at 32° 

 ?8' 13" N. hit., and 109° 07' 30" long. [According to the plate, the fig- 

 ures are found upon bowlders and on the face of the cliff to the height 

 of about 30 feet.] 



The party under Lieutenant Whipple (see Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped., 

 Ill, 1856, Pt. Ill, p. 42) also discovered pictographs at Yampais Spring, 

 Williams River. " The spot is a secluded glen among the mountains. 

 A high shelving rock forms a cave, within which is a pool of water and 

 a crystal stream flowing from it. The lower surface of the rock is 

 covered with pictographs. None of the devices seem to be of recent 

 date." 



Many of the country rocks lying on the Colorado plateau of Northern 

 Arizona, east of Peach Springs, bear traces of considerable artistic 

 workmanship. Some observed by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, in 1871, were 

 rather elaborate and represented figures of the sun, human beings in 

 various styles approaching the grotesque, and other characters not yet 

 understood. All of those observed were made by pecking the surface 

 of basalt with a harder variety of stone. 



Mr. G. K. Gilbert discovered etchings at Oakley Spring, eastern Ari- 

 zona, in 1878, relative to which ho remarks that an Oraibi chief ex- 

 plained them to him and said that the " Mokis make excursions to a 

 locality in the canon of the Colorado Chiquito to get salt. On their re- 

 turn they stop at Oakley Spring and each Indian makes a picture on the 

 rock. Each Indian draws his crest or totem, the symbol of his gens [(?)]. 

 He draws it once, and once only, at each visit." Mr. Gilbert adds, 

 further, that " there are probably some exceptions to this, but the etch- 

 ings show its general truth. There are a great many repetitions of the 

 same sign, and from two to ten will often appear in a row. In several 

 instances I saw the end drawings of a row quite fresh while the others 

 were not so. Mucli of the work seems to have been performed by pound- 

 ing with a hard point, but a few pictures are scratched on. Many draw- 

 ings are weather-worn beyond recognition, and others are so fresh that 

 the dust left by the tool has not been gashed away by rain. Oakley 

 Spring is at the base of the Vermillion Cliff, and the etchings are on 

 fallen blocks of sandstone, a homogeneous, massive, soft sandstone. 

 Tubi, the Oraibi chief above referred to, says his totem is the rain cloud 

 but it will be made no more as he is the last survivor of the gens." 



A group of the Oakley Spring etchings of which Figure 1 is a 

 copy, measures six feet in length and four feet in height. Interpreta- 



