Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. ^ 



and weapons among the aborigines. There are none of our In- 

 dian tribes who have made any proficiency in sculpture, even 

 since the iron hatchet and knife have been exchanged for those 

 of flint and obsidian. All their attempts in this way are grotesque, 

 and exhibit a lamentable want of proportions ; the same which 

 was seen in the paintings and in the figured vases and pottery of 

 the Asteecks of Mexico, when their towns and temples were first 

 visited by the Spanish conqueror." 



The learned Mantell, the distinguished geologist of southeastern 

 England, coincides in opinion with Schoolcraft, as to the true 

 fossil character of the foot-prints; but though he expressly refers 

 to Schoolcraft's article, he seems to have overlooked the charac- 

 ter of the rock ; for he speaks of the impressions as being made 

 in sandstone. The passage occurs in his " Wonders of Geolo- 

 gy," already referred to, at p. 76, where he has copied School- 

 craft's drawing of the foot-prints. He says: 



" In connexion with the occurrence of human bones in lime- 

 stone, I will here notice a discovery of the highest interest, but 

 which has not as yet excited among scientific observers the atten- 

 tion which its importance demands. I allude to the fact announ- 

 ced in the American Journal of Science, (Vol. v, for 1S22,) of 

 impressions of human feet in sandstone, discovered many years 

 ago in a quarry at St.Jl,ouis, on the western bank of the Missis- 

 sippi." 



After giving the plate, he adds : " The above figure is an exact 

 copy of the original drawing, and exhibits the impressions of the 

 soles of two corresponding human feet, placed at a short distance 

 from each other, as of an individual standing upright, in an easy 

 position. The prints are described as presenting the perfect im- 

 press of the feet and toes, exhibiting the form of the muscles, 

 and the flexures of the skin, as if an accurate cast had been 

 taken in a soft substance. They were at first supposed to iiave 

 been cut in the stone by the native Indians, but a little reflection 

 sufficed to show that they were beyond the efl'orts of those rude 

 children of nature ; since they evinced a skill and fidelity of ex- 

 ecution, which even my distinguished friend, Sir Francis Chan- 

 trey, could not have surpassed. No doubt exists in my' mind, 

 that these are the actual prints of human feet in soft sand, which 

 was quickly converted into solid rock by the infiltration of cal- 

 careous matter in the manner already described. The length of 



Vol. SLiii, No. 1.— April-June, 1842, 4 



