90 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
much warning. Each one hurried to his lodge, expecting a storm, when a vivid flash 
of lightning, followed immediately by a crashing peal of thunder, broke over them, 
and, looking: towards the huge bowlder beyond their camp, they saw a pillar or 
column of smoke standing upon it, which moved to and fro, and gradually settled 
down into the outline of a huge giant, seated upon the bowlder, with one long arm 
extended to heaven and the other pointing down to his feet. Peal after peal of 
thunder, and flashes of lightning in quick succession followed, and this figure then 
suddenly disappeared. The next morning the Sioux went to this bowlder and found 
these figures and images upon it, where before there had been nothing, and ever 
since that the place has been regarded as wakan or sacred. 
Mr. T. H. Lewis ()) gives a description of Fig. 51. 
This bowlder is in the edge of the public park, on the north end of the plateau at 
Brown's valley. Minnesota. The bowlder has a flat surface with a western exposure, 
is irregular in outline, and is about 5 feet 8 inches in diameter, and firmly imbedded 
in the terrace. 
The central figure, a, undoubtedly represents a man, although the form is some- 
what conventional; ) represents a bird; ¢ represents a tortoise; d is a cross and 
cirele combined, but the circle has a groove extending from it; e, f, and g, although 
somewhat in t e shape of crosses, probably represent bird tracks; h and 7 are non- 
desctipt in character, although there must be some meaning attached to them; k 
and l are small dots or cups cut into the bowlder, 
The figures as illustrated are one-eighth of their uatural size, and are also correct 
in their relative positions one to the other. The work is neatly done although the 
depth of the incisions is very slight. 
MONTANA. 
Mr. Charles Hallock. of Washington, D. C., reports the occurrence 
of pictured rocks near Fort Assiniboin, Montana, but does not mention 
whether they are colored or incised, and also fails to describe the gen- 
eral type of the characters found. 
NEBRASKA. 
The following (condensed) description of petroglyphs found in Dakota 
county, Nebraska, is furnished by Mr. J. H. Quick, of Sioux City, lowa: 
The petroglyphs are found upon the face of a sandstone cliff in a deep ravine at a 
point where two watercourses (dry for the most part), meet about 20 miles south of 
Sioux City, Lowa, but in Dakota county, in the State of Nebraska. At this point the 
range of blutis which bounds the Missouri river bottom is deeply cut through by the 
above-mentioned ravine, which runs in a northerly direction towards the Missouri. 
Another ravine coming from the southwest leaves this narrow point of land between 
the two ravines, rising to a height of 50 to 75 feet above the bottom of the ravines. 
For some distance from the point this cape, if I may so term it, shows ledges of 
sandstone cropping out on both sides. And exactly at the point and for some rods 
back on the east side are found the pictographs under consideration. 
The rocks are of two kinds, a few feet of hard jasperous sandstone superimposed 
on about the same thickness of sandstone so soft that it can be crumbled to pieces in the 
fingers. The lower soft strata have been worn away, leaving the upper harder layers 
jutting out to a distance of several feet over and completely sheltering them. And 
on the smooth surface of these lower softstrata, protected by the overhanging ledge 
above, shut in by bluffs 200 feet high on the east and sheltered from the winds by 
dense underwood and scrubby forest trees, are carved these pictographs. These 
safeguards, combined with the advantage of a very secluded situation, have com- 
bined to preserve them, very little marred by careless and mischievous hands. 
ee 
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