184 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
other, but placed where the lava presents the smoothest spots, rendered shining and 
Fie. 145,—Petroglyphs in Canary Islands, 
glassy by the light varnish left by the volcanic matter in 
cooling, are the various groups of characters. 
When we examine closely these different signs or char- 
acters so deeply engraved [pecked] on the rock, doubtless 
by means of some hard stone (obsidian or basalt), the first 
thing obseryed is that several identical signs are repro- 
duced several times in the same group. These are, first, 
round and oval characters, more or less perfect, sometimes 
simple and isolated, again agglomerated in one group. 
These characters so often reproduced are again seen in 
juxtaposition or united, sometimes to others which are 
similar, sometimes to different ones, and even inclosed in 
others similar to them; for example, a in Fig. 144. 
Round or more or less oval characters reappear several 
times in b. 
Others, which are not met with more than once or twice 
among the groups of signs, also present notable variations ; 
examples in c. 
Of these are formed composite groups d, which belong, 
howeyer, to the system of round signs. 
Other analogous but not identical signs appear to assume 
rather the ovoid form than the round, and seem to have been 
so traced as not to be confounded with the round symbols. 
Some of them resemble leaves or fruit. 
Another system of simple characters is the straight line, 
which can be represented by a stroke of the pen, isolated 
or repeated as if in numeration, and sometimes accompanied 
by other signs. 
Other peculiar signs shown in e, which are not repeated, 
figure in the different groups of characters which the author 
has reproduced. 
We notice further, in f, a small number of signs which 
bear a certain analogy to each other, and several of which 
are accompanied by other and more simple characters. 
Several others still more complicated are in eccentric 
shapes which it is attempted to present in g. 
Including the common oval characters often repeated and 
those consisting of a simple stroke similar to the strokes 
made by school children, all the various engraved charac- 
ters scarcely exceed 400. 
Fig. 145 gives a view of a series of different groups of 
signs in the length of the whole lava flow. The copyist 
has expressed by dots those symbols which were confused, 
partly defaced by the weather, or destroyed by fissures in 
the rock. 
The same author (b) gives an account of several 
strange characters found engraved on a rock of 
the grotto of Belmaco, in the island of La Palma, 
one of the Canaries. He says: 
These drawings, presented that they may be compared 
with those of Fer Island (Los Letreros), show some fifteen 
signs, some of which are repeated several times and others partly effaced by weather, 
or at least feebly traced. But what seems most remarkable is that six or seven 
