1891.] Cup-Stones. Near Old Fort Ransom. 457 
their resemblance to those found in the eastern hemisphere. In 
his “Observations on Cup-Shaped and Other Lapidarian Sculp- 
tures in the Old World and America” (1881) he? describes a few 
specimens whose characteristics are undoubted. The best of these 
are the “incised rock” in Forsyth County, Georgia; the sand- 
stone block with cup-cavities discovered by Dr. H. H. Hill in 
Lawrence county, Ohio;* and the sculptures on Bald Friar 
Rock in the usquehanna River, Cecil county, Maryland. Toward 
the end of the work Professor Rau gives the various speculations 
which have been published as to the purpose for which cup-and 
ring-cuttings were made, but states that after all that has been 
said concerning their significance in the Old World, he hardly 
ventures to offer an opinion of his own. Still he thinks that both 
kinds of sculpture belong to ove primitive system, of which the 
former seems to be the earlier expression. Turning to America, 
he considers that here, as yet, the number of discovered cup-stones 
is by far too small to permit the merest attempt at generalization. 
The author just referred to has shown in his book that true 
cup-stones have been found in the United States as far east as 
Connecticut and as far west as Illinois, but the fact that rocks 
having such incised work exist also far beyond the Mississippi 
valley has not yet, apparently, become known to the antiquarian 
world. It is therefore for the purpose of describing one so located 
that this paper is written. 
The rock in question is situated in Ransom county, North 
Dakota, and, with others, it came under my observation in the 
middle of last August, at which time full notes were taken, and 
the pictographs to be described further on carefully copied. 
Ransom county derives its name from a post of the United 
States army which was formerly maintained on the west side of 
the Shyenne River, in that part of its course known as the Great 
Bend. The top of the bluff on which the ruined fort stands is 
about two-hundred-and-fifty feet above the river. About one- 
quarter of a mile to the westward, on the north half of the south- 
2 In “ Contributi North American “Ethnology,” Vol. V., Washington, 1882. 
3 Thisis th he “ i ist boulder ” already illustrated in Professor. 
Wilson's “ Prehistoric Man ” (1876). 
