MALLERY.] PETROGLYPHS IN WASHINGTON. 123 
perfectly smooth surface, from 600 to 1,000 feet high, rising out of the take. On the 
cliff he found Indian picture-writings, painted evidently at widely different periods, 
but evidently quite old. The oldest was from 25 to 30 feet above the present water 
level, and could at the time they were executed only be reached by canoe. The 
paintings are figures, black and red in color, and represent Indians with bows and 
arrows, elk, deer, bear, beaver, and fish, and are from 1 foot to 18 inches in size. 
There are either four or five rows of these figures, quite a number in each row. 
The Indians inhabiting this region know nothing of the origin of these pictures, 
and say that none of their people for the past four generations knew anything about 
them. 
Since the preceding letter was written a notice of the same rock has 
been published, together with an illustration, by Mr. Alfred Downing, 
of Seattle, Washington, in “ The Northwest,” vu, No. 10, October, 1889, 
pp. 3, 4. The description, condensed, is as follows: 
In that part of Washington territory until recent years known as the Moses In- 
dian reservation lies the famous Lake Chelan, 70 miles in length with an average 
width of 2 miles. 
About half a mile from its head, on the western shore and rising from the water, as 
an abrupt and precipitous wall of granite, stands ‘‘ Pictured rock.” 
The most remarkable feature of the Chelan picture is that the figures represent- 
ing Indians, bear, deer, birds, ete., are painted upon the surface of the smooth 
granite, nearly horizontal, but about 17 feet above the lake; the upper portion of 
the picture being about 2 feet higher. The figures depicted are 5 to 10 inches long. 
The difference between high and low stage of water at any period during the year 
does not exceed 4 feet, and this high-water mark being well defined along the shore, 
it becomes self-evident that these sigus were placed there ages ago, when the water was 
17 feet higher than it isnow. The granite bluff or walls in this instance are smooth, 
being weather and water worn, and afford no hold for hand or foot either from 
above or below, and from careful observation it would appear to be a physical 
impossibility for either a white or red man to show his artistic skill on those rocks 
unless at the ancient stage of water and with the aid of a canoe or a ‘ dugout.” 
The paint or color used was black and red, the latter resembling venetian. How 
wonderfully the color has stood the test in the face of the storms to which the lake 
is Subject is apparent; only in one or two instances does it to-day show any signs of 
fading or weather-wearing. Thesigns impressed me as intending to convey the idea 
of the prowess of an Indian chief in the hunt, or as being a page in the history of a 
a tribe, the small perpendicular strokes seen in the lower portion indicating proba- 
bly the number of bear, deer, or other animals slain. 
When referring, in Pacific Railroad Report, vol. 1, page 411, to a 
locality on the Columbia river in Washington, between Yakima and 
Pisquouse counties, Mr. George Gibbs mentioned pecked and colored 
petroglyphs which he found there as follows: 
Tt was a perpendicular rock, on the face of which were carved sundry figures, most 
of them intended for men. They were slightly sunk into the sandstone and colored, 
some black, others red, and traces of paint remained more less distinctly on all of them. 
These also, according to their [the Indians’] report, were the work of the ancient 
race; but from the soft nature of the rock, and the freshness of some of the paint, 
they were probably not of extreme antiquity. 
For another example of petroglyphs from Washington see Fig. 679, 
