Rocky Mountains. 57 



strongly attracted the attention of the curious, on account of 

 having been found in one or two instances, to contain dis- 

 tinct impressions of the human foot. There is now in the 

 possession of Mr. Kapp, of the Society of the Harmonites, a 

 stone, which has upon its surface, marks that appear to have 

 been formed by the naked feet of some human being, who 

 was standing upon it while in a plastic state ; also an irregular 

 line, apparently traced by a stick or wand, held in the hand 

 of the same person. This stone was taken from the slope of 

 the immediate bank of the Mississippi below the range of 

 * the periodical floods. To us there seems nothing inexplicable 

 or difficult to understand in its appearance. 



Nothing is more probable, than that impressions of humat* 

 feet made upon that thin stratum of mud, which was deposit- 

 ed on the shelvings of the rocks, and left naked by the retir- 

 ing of the waters, may, by the induration of the mud, have 

 been preserved, and at length have acquired the appearance 

 of an impression made immediately upon the limestone. 

 This supposition will be somewhat confirmed, if we exa- 

 mine the mud and slime deposited by the water of the Mis- 

 sissippi, which will be found to consist of such an intimate 

 mixture of clay and lime, as under favourable circumstances, 

 would very readily become indurated. We are not confi- 

 dent that the impressions abovementioned have originated 

 in the manner here supposed, but we cannot by any means 

 adopt the opinion of some, who have considered them as 

 contemporaneous to those casts of submarine animals, which 

 occupy so great a part of the body of the limestone. We 

 have no hesitation in saying, that whatever those impres- 

 sions may be, if they were produced, as they appear to have 

 been by the agency of human feet, they belong to a period 

 far more recent, than that of the deposition of the limestone 

 on whose surface they are found. 



The country about St. Louis, like that in the rear of 

 Fort Chartres, and indeed like the horizontal limestone coun- 



VOL. t. 8 



