152 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS 
of vast proportions, inclosed by fortifications on two sides, at which it seems most 
accessible. On these same sides this collection of villages has external construe- 
tions or means of security, a kind of meanders or symbolic figures, which perhaps 
signify difficulties besetting the communication of the inhabitants with the sur- 
rounding fields. 
In the lower part of the left-hand side there is a group of figures which seem to 
represent residences of chiefs, war houses, or redoubts, built near the principal 
entrance to the villages or to the city for its defense. There are found three figures 
of saurians, one with a large tail, on the side of the redoubts or fortified houses, as 
if representing the population, and two with small tails, which seem strange, and 
which walk toward the first. 
This inseription is evidently the most perfect and the most notable of those found 
till now in all America [?], not only by its perfect condition and dimensions, but 
also by the mode in which a series of ideas has here been brought together. 
mmo 
The same author, on p. 552, furnishes copies 
of inscriptions carved on stones in the valley 
of the Rio Negro, and remarks: “In this series 
there are notable the two crowned personages 
|represented here in Fig. 112], one of whom holds 
a staffin the right hand, and below and under 
them there are two figures of capibars (sea-hogs) 
facing each other, and whose representation in 
black color resembles some figures from the in- 
scriptions of North America.” 
Thefollowingaccount is in Dr. E.R. Heath’s (a) ae “Riot Meee Bemion me 
Exploration of the River Beni: 
Hieroglyphics were found on rocks at the falls and rapids of the rivers Madeira 
and Mamoré. * * * By accident we found some at the rapids at the foot of Cal- 
dierao do Inferno. Designs d and b are figures on the same rock side by side. a is 
another face of the same rock 10 feet across. e and fare on the upper surface of 
a rock, and ¢ on one of its sides near the bottom; g is upon a rock 15 feet above 
the surface of the river. Many more were on the other rocks, but our time did not 
permit further copying. Mr. T. M. Fetterman, my companion, and myself sketched 
as fast as possible. 
Fig. 113 is a reproduction of the illustration ee 
ec 
1 BRE aah R oS 
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UGE V: 
Fic. 113.—Petroglyphs at the Caldierao do Inferno, Brazil. 
The moment we arrived at the falls of Girao we searched for stone carvings, find- 
ing a few, and seyeral repetitions of circles similar to those already found. Designs a— 
and d are on the west and east side of the same rock, which is 9 feet in length. The 
figure is 21 inches high, the five circles 1 foot across. The east side was almost ob- 
literated. Designs b and c are on loose stones; b, facing west, is 16 inches long; 
the rock is 50 inches long and 35 wide; ¢ is 22 inches long; the rock 70 inches long 
by 27 inches broad, and was 30 feet above the river at date. The rocks are basaltic, 
<n cael aeatied aoa 
