Sept. 2, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
379 
The Testimony of the Rocks. 
The reflective mind will find much to ponder 
over in connection with the testimonials left 
by former peoples upon the face of this world. 
In my wanderings over the west and south¬ 
west I have often been impressed by the land¬ 
marks left by races long since passed into ob¬ 
livion. With all our erudition we have been 
unable to interpret many of these evidences. 
In the Southwest they take the form of ancient 
buildings, earthworks, and the remnants of 
pottery; here in the Northwest it is the rocks 
that bear testimony. 
Not long since in Southern California I came 
across the ruins of an extensive irrigation sys¬ 
tem. This I traced to its source in the moun¬ 
tains where once a considerable stream ran 
which furnished the water for the ditch. No 
stream flowed in the old bed and the geological 
history showed that it had been many ages 
since one had flowed there, but the old ditch 
was easily traced by one experienced in locat¬ 
ing such things. The oldest residents of that 
section were certain that no irrigating system 
had ever covered the ground now set with or¬ 
ange trees and grape vines. It required con¬ 
siderable ocular demonstration to convince them 
that the former inhabitants had actually culti¬ 
vated the ground and had exercised consider¬ 
able skill in watering it. What tribe this was 
no person can ever say. The Indians driven 
out by the advent of the Spaniards, who were 
superseded by the Americans, had no system of 
agriculture beyond a few rods of ground planted 
to melons and corn along the waterways. They 
had no history or tradition of any former 
people who had occupied the country and pur¬ 
sued an agricultural existence, but there was 
the evidence. 
The tribes of the Northwest left their signs 
manual upon the rocks. Scattered over the 
great inter-mountain region of Washington, 
Idaho, Montana and British Columbia, one runs 
across these petroglyphs, many of them easy 
of interpretation, others again, difficult or im¬ 
possible. By far the greater number of the 
picture writings take the form of tribal histories, 
family trees, ceremonial observances, personal 
deeds of prowess, and tribal totems. Other 
rock work, as for instance, those located along 
the shores of Montana rivers, are purely of 
utilitarian design, camas pounding holes, boil¬ 
ing cavities and the like. Quite frequently the 
observer happens across perfectly symmetrical 
cavities in the basaltic rock which were formed 
with great labor, for the purpose of furnishing 
a convenient place for macerating the camas 
root. A little further investigation will reveal 
pestles, or the fragments of them, lying near. 
Usually these pestles are in an imperfect state, 
being broken implements that were discarded. 
On the shores of lake Pend Oreille in north¬ 
ern Idaho occurs a series of picture writings 
which have never, so far as I have been able to 
ascertain, been deciphered. They are so curi¬ 
ous that an extended description of them is ad- 
missable. 
In making a voyage about the lake one sum¬ 
mer following my particular hobby of orni¬ 
thology, I chanced to anchor my motor boat 
in a sheltered cove at the foot of a steep basaltic 
cliff, where I had noticed a number of Vaugh’s 
swifts skimming about over the still water and 
returning to crevices in the rock. A nest ot 
this bird is of sufficient interest to the bird 
lover to warrant considerable effort at locating 
it. I landed and scrambled up the bare face 
of the cliff for several yards, seeking among 
the holes and crevices for the coveted nests, 
which, I may add, I did not find. In descend¬ 
ing, I slipped over the face of a* smooth boulder 
which was overgrown with moss. My foot dis¬ 
placed some of the growth beneath which dis¬ 
closed something which immediately attracted 
my attention. A little closer inspection re¬ 
vealed a collection of picture writings which l 
lost no time in bringing to light. They were 
different from any I had ever seen and bore the 
evidence of extreme age. The water had nearly 
obliterated the lower ones, and it requires a 
long time for the lapping of the water to wear 
away the hard granite. Those out of reach of 
the water were still deep and plain. In order 
to bring out the detail it was necessary to chalk- 
in the outlines, which spoiled the picture some¬ 
what, but without which I would have been un¬ 
able to bring away the impression. 
A careful inspection of the picture will reveal 
to the student several interesting things. He 
will notice that practically all the carvings take 
the same form, the rude representation of a 
bear’s foot. These tracks all point in the same 
direction, as does also the rude arrow in the 
lower left-hand corner. The reversed letter D 
in the upper right-hand corner, also the char¬ 
acter just above the circle in the cluster of 
tracks, are two that I have never been able to 
furnish any explanation for. The circle itself 
might easily be made to represent the sun. It 
will also be noticed that the bear tracks (if that 
is what they are) are made in different ways: 
Some have but three toes, some five; some 
have a single bar across them, some two bars; 
some have a bar and a row of dots, one has 
two bars and a row of dots. 
'1 aken altogether, this record is a puzzle. I 
have quite an extensive knowledge of the 
Northwestern Indians and have questioned 
many old Indians about this record without 
learning anything of value. If we could as¬ 
sume that some of the Alaskan tribes at one 
time inhabited this country, we might arrive 
at some sort of explanation, for the Alaskan 
tribes are of the bear totem and it would not 
require any great stretch of imagination to 
read the markings as bear tracks. No history 
can he had, however, of any of the far Northern 
tribes having ever inhabited this country. 
While the present Northwestern Indians hold 
the bear somewhat sacred there is no evidence 
that they ever erected him into a fetich, nor have 
I ever found him figuring in a totem. The evi¬ 
dences show that the carvings were made many 
ages ago by some tribe long since at rest on the 
bosom of our common mother. Charles S. Moody. 
Snake-Catching Cats. 
Berlin, N. Y., Aug. 26. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I do not think that it is usual for cats 
to catch snakes. I have two cats and a kitten. 
Two weeks ago the mother of the kitten brought 
a small snake into the house which the kitten 
ate after the snake had been killed. Last night 
I found the kitten eating a small snake in the 
dining room and a few minutes later the male 
cat brought a live snake into the kitchen. 
There are no poisonous snakes in this locality, 
unless what is called the checkered adder comes 
under that head. A few weeks ago one of my 
neighbors reported that her cat had brought in 
a snake. Sandy. 
PICTURE WRITINGS ON A STONE. 
