SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 528 



SCIENCE: 



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CALTFORNIA PICTOGRAPHS AND HIEROGLYPHICS. 



BY MRS. THEODORE H. HITTELL, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



The study and investigation of the works of tlie earliest inliabi- 

 tants of a country is now a science in itself, and is receiving more 

 and more attention in all parts of the veorld. 



Too little has heretofore been done in California. Alaska, 

 Nevada, and Arizona to investigate, gather up, and preserve the 

 relics and works of the prehistoric races which inhabited these 

 western territories, and as there is now but little left, that little 

 should without delay be carefully sought out and put in such 

 shape as to remain a permanent possession. Of much, on ac- 

 count of our own carelessness we have been despoiled, and much 

 tliat yet remains has been more or less defaced and injured. 



Government, as well as scientific societies, should look to the 

 preservation of what remains of the structures, tools, utensils, 

 and weapons of the aborigines, and by all means endeavor to gather 

 together and preserve by photographs the cipher writings which 

 are yet to be found and which, year after year, by the corroding 

 hand of time and the more destructive hand of ruthless van- 

 dalism, are becoming more and more defaced and ruined. 



The cipher writings yet to be found from Alaska to Arizona, if 

 carefully gathered and studied, might enable us to leam many 

 very important facts concerning the customs of the redskins and 

 their early history. 



In the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near the so-called Summit 

 Soda Springs, about fourteen miles south of Donner Lake and at 

 an elevation of about 6,000 feet above the level of the ocean, the 

 attention of tourists is attracted by numerous inscriptions in- 

 cised in the rocks. 



The most prominent, and the most inviting of attention of 

 these, are those cut in the granite rocks, about a hundred feet 

 high, which stand nearly isolated on the right and on the left of 

 the headwaters of the North Fork of the American River. 



The stream there is almost a little torrent and dashes over the 

 rocks in cascades and from there it plunges into and through a 

 mountain gorge towards the lower level far below. 



To a person standing near the fountain-head of the river, on 

 the rocks against which it chafes and whicb it is gradually but 

 surely wearing away, and who takes note and truly appreciates 

 thegrandeur of the scenery, there comes afeelingof aweand rev- 

 erence. It elevates the soul and calls forth a spirit akin to relig- 

 ious worship. 



It was here in this sublime region that an unknown people left 

 pictographs on the rocks pertaining doubtless to their history and 

 religion. The seasons of centuries since then have come and 

 gone; the snows of uncounted winters have covered them ; suc- 

 ceeding springs and summers unnumbered have decked the 

 mountains with yearly verdure, and the river has been rushing 

 on and on and cutting its bed deeper and deeper. All this we 

 know; but we know nothing of those who wrote these ciphers 

 on the monumental rocks. They have long since passed away. 

 Only with the help of science and long study and comparison. 



can we hope to gain an inkling of the meaning these ciphers were 

 intended to convey, and add, perhaps, some important facts to 

 the ancient history of California— a subject now so full of interest 

 and becoming daily of more and more interest to the world. 



According to the Report of the Bureau of Ethnology at Wash- 

 ington, pictographs of the North American Indians are found at 

 Santa Barbara and San Diego in California, and in Nevada, Ari- 

 zona, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. 



In Nevada great numbers of incised characters of various 

 kinds are found on the rocks flanking Walker River. These are 

 waving lines, rings, and what appear to be vegetable, animal, 

 and human forms. Among the copies of pictographs obtained 

 in various portions of the Northwestern States and Territories by 

 Mr. Gilbert, one kind is referred to as being on a block of basalt 

 at Revielle, Nevada, and is mentioned as Shinuma or Mosquis. 



This suggestion is based upon the general resemblance to draw- 

 ings found in Arizona, and known to have been made by Mosquis 

 Indians. 



In Oregon, numerous boulders and rock escarpments at and 

 near the Dalles of the Columbia River are covered with incised 

 or pecked pictographs. Human figures occur; but other forms 

 predominate. ■ From Lieut. J. H. Simpson's Topographical Bu- 

 reau Report we take the following: "At the Rio de Zuni, in 

 1849, we met Mr. Lewis, who had been a trader among the 

 Navajas, and according to his statement had seen inscriptions on 

 a rock on his travels to and fro. He offered to guide us. He 

 led us to a low mound. We went up and found inscriptions of 

 interest, if not of value; and of them some dating so far back as 

 1606. The rock is since mentioned as Inscription Rock." The 

 following letter, addressed to Lieut. J. H. Simpson, %vas written 

 by Danatiana Vigil, Secretary of the Province of Santa Fe, on Oc- 

 tober 19, 1849. 



"S»';— The engravings which are sculptured on the rock of 

 Fish Spring, near the Pueblo of Zuni, copies of which you have 

 taken, were made in the epoch to which they refer. I have an 

 indistinct idea of their existence; but, although I have passed 

 the iilace some three times, I never availed myself of the oppor- 

 tunity to observe them. The other signs or characters noticed 

 are traditional remembrances, by means of which the Indians 

 transmit historical accounts of all their remarkable successes. 

 To discover thesesets by themselves is very difficult. Someof the 

 Indians make trifling indications, which divulge, with a great 

 deal of reserve, something of their history, to persons in whom 

 they have entire confidence. The people who inhabited this 

 country before its discovery by the Spaniards were superstitious 

 and worshipped the sun." 



Mr. G. K. Gilbert discovered etchings at Oakley Springs, Eat-t- 

 ern Arizona, in 1878, I'elative to which he remarks that an Orabi 

 chief explained them to him and said that the Mosquis make ex- 

 cursions to a locality on the Colorado Chiquito to get salt. On 

 their return they stop at Oakley Springs and each Indian makes 

 a picture on the rock. Each Indian draws his crest or totem, the 

 symbol of his genus. He draws it once, and once only on a 

 visit. 



From Alaska to Arizona many inscriptions on rocks are found. 

 Of some of them photographs have been taken. But so far as 

 we know none are as extensive or of such variety and of so an- 

 cient a date as those situated near the source of the American 

 River. 



These pictographs seemingly resemble and are written in much 

 the same way as the Chinese ciphers where each figure is a word 

 and has a full meaning, and seemingly they should be read from 

 right to left. ' 



Max Miiller says, in writing of the American aborigines: 

 "Though the Indians never arrived at the perfection of the 

 Egyptian hieroglyphics, they had a numberof symbolic emblems, 

 which were perfectly understood by all their tribes. For in- 

 stance, power over man is symbolized by a line drawn in the 

 figure from the mouth to the heart. Power, in general, by a 

 head with two horns. A Bgure with a plant as head and two 

 wings, denotes a doctor skilled in medicine. A tree with human 

 legs, a herbalist. Night is represented by a finely crossed or 

 barred sun, or a circle with human legs. Rain is figured by a 



