40 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
After the writer had inspected the rocks and discovered their charae- 
teristics, and learned how to distinguish and copy their markings, it 
seemed that, with the exception of a few designs recently dug or chipped 
out by lumbermen or visitors, almost always initials, the only interest- 
ing or ancient portions were scratchings which could be made on the 
soft slate by any sharp instrument. The faces of the rocks were im- 
mense soft and polished drawing-slates, presenting to any person who 
had ever drawn or written before an irresistible temptation to draw or 
LON 
HH 
Fig. 1,—Palimpsest on Fairy rocks, Nova Scotia. 
write. The writer, happening to have with him an Indian stone arrow 
which had been picked up in the neighborhood, used its point upon the 
surface, and it would make as good scratches as any found upon the 
rocks except the very latest, which were obviously cut by the whités 
with metal knives. 
As is above suggested, the peculiar multiplication of the characters 
upon the most attractive of the slates affords evidence as to their 
relative antiquity superior to that generally found in petroglyphs. 
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