^4 Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. 



if impressed when soft enough to receive such deep and distinct 

 tracks." 



" To those who are familiar with the facts of sea and fresh wa- 

 ter shells, ferns, madrepores, and other fossil organic remains in 

 the hardest sandstones and limestones of our continent, the hard- 

 ness of the rock and the supposed rapidity of its consolidation, 

 will not present objections of that force which the writer (Col. 

 Benton) supposes. But the want of tracks leading to and from 

 them presents a difficulty which cannot perhaps be so readily ob- 

 viated. We should certainly suppose such tracks to exist, unless 

 it could be ascertained that the toes of the prints, when in situ, 

 pointed inland, in which case we should be at liberty to conjec- 

 ture, that the person making them, had landed from the Missis- 

 sippi and proceeded no further into the interior. But no inquiry 

 has enabled me to ascertain this fact, the circumstance not being 

 recollected by Col. Benton and others who have often visited this 

 curiosity while it remained in its natural position at St. Louis.* 



" The following considerations, it will be seen, are stated by 

 Col. Benton, as capable of being urged in opposition to his the- 

 ory of their being of factitious origin. 



" 1. The exquisiteness of the workmanship. 



" 3. The difficulty of working such hard material without steel 

 or iron." 



" The strikingly natural appearance of these prints, has always 

 appeared to me to be one of the best evidences of their being 

 genuine ; for I cannot suppose that there is any artist now in 

 America possessed of the skill necessary to produce such perfect 

 and masterly pieces of sculpture ; yet what are we to say of the 

 skill of that people who are supposed to have been capable of 

 producing such finished pieces of art without the aid of iron 

 tools ? For let it be constantly borne in mind that the antiquity 

 of these tracks can be traced back to the earliest discovery of this 

 country, and consequently prior to the introduction of iron tools 



* In reply to a second letter addressed to Mr. Anderson, in order to ascertain 

 this point, he replies, that " the foot-prints were looking Unoards the east and to- 

 wards the river." Yet I do not attribute to this fact so much importance as Mr. 

 Schoolcraft appears to affix to it. It seems to me quite as natural and likely (if 

 we suppose but the single impression made) that an Indian should step out from 

 his canoe backwards, and in that position shove it off again, as that he should 

 make one step on shore, as if with the intention to land, and then step backwards 

 again into his canoe. D. D. O. 



