FOKEIGX PETROGIiYPHS. 



The distribution and the description of the petroglyphs of Mexico, as 

 well as of otber forms of pictographs found there, are omitted in the 

 present paper. The subject is so vast, and such a large amount of in- 

 formation lias already been given to the public concerning it, that it is 

 not considered in this work, which is mainly devoted to the similar pro- 

 ductions of the tribes popularly known as North American Indians. 

 although tbe pre-Columbian inhabitants of Mexico should, in strictness, 

 be included in that category. It is, however, always to be recognized 

 that one of the most important points in the study of pictographs, is 

 the comparison of those of Mexico with those found farther north. 



Copies of many petroglyphs found in the eastern hemisphere have 

 been collected, but the limitations of the present paper do not allow of 

 their reproduction or discussion. 



PETROGLYPHS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



While the scope of this work does not contemplate either showing 

 the distribution of the rock carvings in South America, or entering upon 

 any detailed discussion of them, some account is here subjoined for the 

 purpose of indicating the great extent of the ethnic material of this 

 character that is yet to be obtained from that continent. Alexander 

 von Humboldt, in Aspects of Nature in different lauds and different 

 climates, etc., Vol. I, pp. 196-201, London, 1850, gives the following gen- 

 eral remarks concerning pictographs from South America: 



In tlic interior of South America, between the 2d and 4th degrees of North latitude, 

 a forest-covered plain is enclosed by four rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio 

 Negro, and the Cassiquiare. Iu this district are found rocks of granite and of sye- 

 nite, covered, like those of Caicara and Uruana, with colossal symbolical figures of 

 crocodiles and tigers, and drawings of household utensils, and of the sun and moon. 

 At the present time this remote corner of the earth is entirely without human inhab- 

 itants, throughout an extent of more than 8,000 square geographical miles. The 

 tribes nearest to its boundaries are wandering naked sa\ ages, in the lowest stages of 

 human existence, and far removed from any thoughts of carving hieroglyphics on 

 rocks. One may trace in South America an entire zone, extending through more 

 than eight degrees of longitude, of rocks so ornamented : viz. from the Rnpuniri, Esse- 

 qnibo, and the mountains of Pacaiaima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the Yupura. 

 These carvings may belong to very different epochs, for Sir Robert Schomburgk even 

 found on the Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galiot, which must have been of 

 a later date than the beginning of the lGth century : and this in a wilderness where 

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