EAU] ROCK SCULPTURES IN MARYLAND. 61 



centre— tliirty-eight feet— having been blasted away many years ago, and 

 the stone used in the construction of a shad-fishery. By this process many 

 carvings were destroyed, traces of which Mr. Galbraith discovered upon 

 fragments of rock scattered over the upper end of the island. The rock 

 evidently was entirely covered with sculpturings. A large portion of its 

 northeastern end is becoming detached from the main body, and Avill in 

 the course of a few years topple over into the river, for which reason Mr. 

 Galbraith was particularly anxious to trace all the carvings on it. To 

 judge from a detached sculptured piece sent by Mr. Galbraith to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, the rock is of a chloritic character, and consequently 

 not very hard, insomuch that the sculpturing of the figures by means of 

 pecking or punching with stone implements was not a very difficult task. 

 All who have examined the sculptures agree as to their very ancient ap- 

 pearance. They are of a heterogeneous and peculiar character, and in many 

 respects unlike any rock-cuttings of which I have seen representations. 

 There is, for instance, a curious combination of straight and curved lines, 

 forming a labyrinthic figure, which cannot be compared to any known 

 object. In another group, shown in Fig. 46, cup-shaped depressions, from 

 three-eighths to three-fourths of an inch in depth, are mingled with curiously- 

 formed lines, the whole producing a semblance to characters, which the 

 makers certainly did not intend to represent. Rows of four, five or more 

 parallel, or nearly parallel, lines are not unfrequent, and in one instance a 

 design appears which has been compared to a gridiron. Several of the 

 figures resemble a jilant with a median stem and lateral branches. The 

 most conspicuous of these carvings happens to be on the slab forwarded to 

 the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Galbraith, and is here represented as 

 Fig. 47. It measures two feet in length and fifteen inches and a half in its 

 largest width. The central stem of the carving terminates in a figure in 

 which a lively imagination might discover a fruit or flower. The incised 

 lines forming the design are shallow, not exceeding one-fourth or three- 

 eighths of an inch in depth, on an average an inch wide, and betoken just 

 such skill in sculpture as might be expected from a primitive people that 

 had only tools of stone at its conunand. 



The northeastern end of the rock, the one in danger of falling one day 



