Human Foot-Prhits in Solid Limestojie. 23' 



are not the impressions of feet accustomed to a close shoe, the 

 toes being very much spread, and the foot flattened in a man- 

 ner that happens to those who have been habituated to a great 

 length of time without shoes. Notwithstanding this circum- 

 stance, the prints are strikingly natural, exhibiting every muscu- 

 lar impression and swell of the heel and toes, with a precision 

 and faithfulness to nature, which I have not been able to copy 

 with perfect exactness in the present drawing. The length of 

 each foot, as indicated by the prints, is ten and a half inches, 

 and the width across the spread of the toes four inches, which 

 diminishes to two and a half inches at the ball of the heel, 

 indicating, as it is thought, a stature of the common size. 



" This rock presents a plain and smooth surface, having acquired 

 a polish from the sand and water, to which its original position pe- 

 riodically subjected it. Upon this smooth surface, commencing in 

 front of the tracks, there is a kind of scroll, which is two and a 

 half feet 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 making with his fingers, or with 

 a smooth stick, fanciful figures upon a soft surface ; some pretend 

 to observe in this scroll the figure of an Indian bow, but this in- 

 ference did not appear to any of our party to be justified. 



" Every appearance will warrant the conclusion that these im- 

 pressions 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 subse- 

 quently seen to alter this viev/ ; on the contrary, there are some 

 corroborating facts calculated to strengthen and confirm it. But 

 it will be observed by a letter which is transmitted with these 

 remarks, that Col. Benton entertains a different opinion, and sup- 

 poses them to be the result of human labor, at the same period 

 of time when those enigmatical mounds upon the "American 

 bottom," and above the town of St. Louis, were constructed. 

 The reasons which have induced him to reject the opinion of 

 their being organic remains are these : 



" 1st. The hardness of the rock. 



" 2d. The want of tracks leading to and from them. 



" 3d. The difficulty of supposing a change so instantaneous 

 and apropos as must have taken place in the formation of the rock 



