MALLERY. ] IN WEST VIRGINIA. 125 
fect in every respect. Interspersed among the drawings of animals, etc., are imita- 
tions of the footprints of each sort, the whole space occupied being 150 feet long by 
50 feet wide. To what race the artist belonged or what his purpose was in making 
these rude portraits must ever remain a mystery, but the work was evidently done 
ages ago. 
The late P. W. Norris, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reported that he 
found petroglyphs in many localities along the Kanawha river, West 
Virginia. Engravings are numerous upon smooth rocks, covered during 
high water, at the prominent fords in the river, as well as in the niches 
or long shallow eaves high in the rocky cliffs of this region. Rude 
representations of men, animals, and some characters deemed symbolic 
were found, but none were observed superior to, or essentially difter- 
ing from those of modern Indians. 
On the rocky walls of Little Coal river, near the mouth of Big Horse 
creek, are cliffs which display many carvings. One of the rocks upon 
which a mass of characters appear, is 8 feet in length and 5 feet in 
height. 
About 2 miles above Mount Pleasant, Mason county, on the north 
side of the Kanawha river, are numbers of characters, apparently to- 
temic. These are at the foot of the hills flanking the river. 
On the cliffs near the mouth of the Kanawha river, opposite Mount 
Carbon, Nicholas county, are numerous pictographs. These appear to 
be cut into the sandstone rock. 
Pictographs were lately seen at various points on the banks of the 
Kanawha river, both above and below Charleston, but since the con- 
struction of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad some of the rocks bearing 
them have been destroyed. About 6 miles above Charleston there was 
formerly a rock lying near its water’s edge upon which, it is reported 
by old residents, were depicted the outline of a bear, turkey tracks, and 
other markings. Tradition told that this was a boat or canoe landing, 
used by the Indians in their travels when proceeding southward. The 
tribe was not designated. From an examination of the locality it was 
learned that this rock had been broken and used in the construction of 
buildings. It is said that a trail passing there led southward, and at 
a point 10 miles below the Kanawha river stood several large trees 
upon which were marks of red ocher or some similar pigment, at which 
point the trail spread or branched out in two directions, one leading 
southward into Virginia, the other southwest toward Kentucky. 
On a low escarpment of sandstone facing Little Coal river, 6 or 8 
miles above its confluence with Coal river and about 18 miles south of 
the Kanawha river, are depicted the outlines of animals, such as the 
deer, panther (?), ete., and circles, delineated in dark red, but rather 
faint from disintegration of the surface. The characters are similar 
in general appearance to those in Tazewell county, Virginia, and ap- 
pear as if they might have been made by the same tribe. There 
are no peculiarities in the topography of the surrounding region that 
would suggest the idea of their having served as topographic indi- 
