Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. 15 



Mr. Schoolcraft, in the year 1822, first called attention, through 

 the columns of this Journal,* to these impressions ; the German 

 Professor Leonhard, of Heidelberg, discusses the matter in his 

 popular lectures, now in course of republication in this country 

 by Prof. F. Hall ; Dr. Mantell, in his " Wonders of Geology," 

 also speaking of the same foot-prints, says that he has requested 

 Prof. Silliraan to ascertain the nature and age of the rock in 

 which they appear ; and a correspondent, in a recent number of 

 this Journal, calls for information on the same subject. 



These various observations and inquiries, and all others of a 

 similar character which have met my eye, expressly refer to a 

 single specimen ; the only one, it would seem, hitherto discover- 

 ed ; namely, a slab of limestone originally found on the western 

 bank of the Mississippi riverat St. Louis, quarried for Mr. Fred- 

 erick Rapp in the year 1819, and by him removed to the German 

 settlement of Harmony in Indiana, where it became a frequent 

 object of visit and examination among curious travellers. There 

 Schoolcraft saw and described it ; his article, above referred to, 

 (and from which Mantell tells us he derives his information,) 

 commences thus: 



" I send you a drawing of two curious prints of the human 

 foot in limestone rock, observed by me last summer at Harmony 

 on the Wabash, together with a letter of Colonel Benton on the 

 same subject. The slab containing these impressions, was origi- 

 nally quarried on the west bank of the Mississippi river at St. 

 Louis, and belongs to the older floetz range of limestone, which 

 pervades that country to a very great extent." Leonhard, as a 

 note by his editor reminds us, refers, also, as his sole authority, to 

 the article here quoted, and of course to the specimen in question. 



That specimen is now in my possession ; and inasmuch as it 

 has thus attracted the observation even of foreign geologists, and 

 has given rise to not a little discussion and contrariety of opinion 

 among scientific men, I feel called on to contribute what infor- 

 mation I possess relative to its history and description ; more es- ' 

 pecially as I have recently obtained evidence sufficiently conclu- 

 sive touching its precise geological character. 



The best information I can furnish in regard to the exact spot 

 of its original location, and the circumstances by which it came 



* See Vol. T, p. 223, et seq. 



