Remarks on the Points of Human Feet. 225 



present drawing. The length of each foot, as indicated 

 by the prints, is lO^ inches, and the width across the spread 

 of the toes, 4 inches, which diminishes to 2^ inches, at the 

 swell of the heels, indicating, as it is thought, a stature of 

 the common size.* 



This rock presents a plain and smooth surface, having ac- 

 quired a polish from the sand and water, to which its origin- 

 al position periodically subjected it. Upon this smooth 

 surface, commencing in front of the tracks, there is a kind 

 of scroll, which is two feet and a half in length. The shape 

 of this is very irregular, and not equally plain and perfect 

 in all parts, and would convey to the observer the idea of a 

 man idly marking with his fingers, or with a smooth stick, 

 fanciful figures upon a soft surface. Some pretend to ob- 

 serve in this scroll, the figure of an Indian bow, but this 

 inference did not appear, to any of our party, to be justi- 

 fied. 



Every appearance will warrant the conclusion that these 

 impressions were made at a time when the rock was soft 

 enough to receive them by pressure, and that the marks of 

 feet are natural and genuine. Such was the opinion of 

 Gov. Cass and myself, formed upon the spot, and there is 

 nothing that I have subsequently seen to alter this view: 

 on the contrary, there are some corroborating facts calcu- 

 lated to strengthen and confirm it.t But it will be observed 



* These measurements were made July 19th, 1821, in the presence of 

 His Excellency, Lewis Cass ; the Rev. Fred. Rappe, the younger ; and Maj. 

 Robt. A. Forsyth, of Detroit. H. R. S. 



t The following are the facts referred to. At the town of Herculaneum 

 in Jefferson county, Missouri, two supposed tracks of the human foot were 

 observed by the workmen engaged in quarrying stone in the year 1817. 

 These impressions, at the time, attracted the general notice of the inhabi- 

 tants, and were considered so curious and interesting that the workmen who 

 were employed in building a stone chimney for John W. Honey, Esq. of that 

 place, were directed to place the two blocks of stone containing these marks, 

 in the outward wall, so as to be capable of being examined at all times. It 

 is well known to those who have visited that section of country, that the 

 custom of building the back walls and the pipe of the chimney, in such a 

 manner as to project beyond the body of the house, is prevalent among 

 the French, and other inhabitants ; and consequently, the above arrange- 

 ment, while it completely preserves, at the same time exposes the prints 

 to observation, in the most satisfactory nianner. I examined th^m in that 

 position on my first visit to Missouri, in 18i8, and afterwards in 1821, when 

 I took drawings of both the prints. They are however the impressions of 

 feet covered with the Indian shoe, and are not so perfect and exquisitely 

 natural as those at Harmony. They were situated in the same range of 

 secondary limestone, and distant from St. Louis, 30 miles. 



