630 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 277. 



feather loss fail to account for plumages, it will 

 be time enough to adopt theories demanding 

 new life in epidermal structures, that for many 

 months have been histologically dead. The 

 existence of such a thing as ' aptosochromatism' 

 will hardly be proved by those who have no 

 grasp upon fundamental principles, and as long 

 as such observers expect to be taken seriously, 

 they must not be surprised if they are called 

 sharply to account. 



Jonathan Dvstight, Jr. 

 New York. 



indian pictogeaphs on the dakota 

 sandstone. 



The Dakota cretaceous formation which ex- 

 tends from northeastern Nebraska to south- 

 western Kansas is composed of massive ledges 

 of sandstone alternating with beds of shale and 

 clay. These ledges weather out and in many 

 places form precipitous walls from ten to fifty 

 feet high. 



It is upon these walls that the Indians have 

 written their history in pictographs. Traces Of 

 the drawings may be seen on dozens of clifis in 

 the two states. Old hunters and cattlemen tell 

 us that twenty years ago or more the chalk cliifs 

 of the Niobrara cretaceous in western Kansas 

 were also covered with these inscriptions. But 

 they have already disappeared because of the 

 soft material composing the wall upon which 

 they were carved. The Dakota sandstone be- 

 ing somewhat harder is consequently not so 

 easily worn away and many of the drawings 

 are still legible. 



Not infrequently the sandstone wall in the 

 immediate vicinity of one of the springs which 

 abound in the Dakota will be covered with 

 these hieroglyphics. This is the case at the 

 Santee caves on the Platte river opposite Ash- 

 land, Nebraska, and at the noted cave section 

 in Ellsworth county, Kansas. Again some 

 prominent cliff or land-mark has evidently 

 been selected. Pawnee rock on the old Santa 

 Fe trail, the spot forever wedded to a tale of 

 terror, was formerly covered with pictographs. 

 The face of the rock has since been blasted 

 away for building stone. A cliflFof yellow sand- 

 stone standing boldly out on the north bank of 

 the Smoky Hill river near the mouth of Alum 



creek contains some of the finest pictographs in 

 the region. 



In 1867 Dr. F. V. Hayden, United States 

 Geologist described some pictographs near the 

 Blackbird mission on the Missouri river some 

 twenty miles south of Sioux City, la., as follows: 

 ' ' About two miles above the mission the hills 

 are cut by the river so as to reveal vertical 

 blufifs, the rocks of which in the distance have a 

 yellowish-white appearance and from this fact 

 are usually called chalk bluffs. ** * This is per- 

 haps the finest andlargest exposure of the rocks 

 of this group along the river. The mural expo- 

 sures of soft sandstone present good surfaces for 

 the Indian to make use of on which to write his 

 rude history. And on the chalk bluffs there are 

 many of these hieroglyphics in positions totally 

 inaccessible to the Indian of the present time. 

 None of them now living know anything about 

 them audit is supposed that they must be very 

 ancient, and that, since they were made, great 

 changes must have been made in these bluffs 

 by the waters of the Blissouri. These mark- 

 ings are at least fifty feet above the water and 

 fifty feet or more below the summit of the 

 bluff, so that they must have been made before 

 the lower portion of the bluff was washed away 

 by the Missouri. It seems strange that none 

 of these hieroglyphic writings which occur quite 

 often on the chalk-rocks of the Niobrara group 

 higher up the Missouri are known to any In- 

 dians now living. The creek near by is called 

 in Dakota language the creek where the dead 

 have worked on accounts of the markings 

 on the rocks." 



The pictographs referred to by Dr. Hayden 

 may still be seen, although many of them are 

 now practically obliterated. 



Not infrequently these inscriptions occur in 

 obscure caiions or lonely cliffs. The sandstone 

 was easily scratched and the artist was evidently 

 not seeking notoriety. Examples may be cited 

 in a canon five miles east of Kanapolis and in 

 Cameron's draw near Belvidere, Kansas. 



The writer has neither the ability nor in- 

 clination to discuss these picture writings from 

 an ethnological standpoint. Doubtless the fig- 

 ures had a meaning, not only to those who drew 

 them, but also to their contemporaries. Such 

 writings are found in many, perhaps all parts 



