Upon following the most convenient course across the Benton Range to reach Owen’s Valley proper, etchings are also found, though in limited numbers, and seem to partake of the character of “indicators as to course of travel.” By this trail the northernmost of the several groups of etchings above mentioned is the nearest and most easily reached.
The etchings upon the bowlders at Watterson’s are somewhat different from those found elsewhere. The number of specific designs is limited, many of them being reproduced from two to six or seven times, thus seeming to partake of the character of personal names.
One of the most frequent is that resembling a horseshoe within which is a vertical stroke. Sometimes the upper extremity of such stroke is attached to the upper inside curve of the broken ring, and frequently there are two or more parallel vertical strokes within one such curve. Bear-tracks and the outline of human feet also occur, besides several unique forms. A few of these forms are figured, though not accurately, in the Ann. Report upon the Geog. Surveys west of the 100th meridian last mentioned (1876), Plate facing p. 326.
Lieutenant Whipple reports (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped. III, 1856, Pt. III, p. 42, Pl. 36) the discovery of pictographs at Pai-Ute Creek, about 30 miles west of the Mojave villages. These are carved upon a rock, “are numerous, appear old, and are too confusedly obscure to be easily traceable.”
These bear great general resemblance to etchings scattered over Northeast Arizona, Southern Utah, and Western New Mexico.
Remarkable pictographs have also been found at Tule River Agency. See Figure 155, page [235].
COLORED PICTOGRAPHS ON ROCKS.
Mr. Gilbert Thompson reports the occurrence of painted characters at Paint Lick Mountain, 3 miles north of Maiden Spring, Tazewell County, Virginia. These characters are painted in red, blue, and yellow. A brief description of this record is given in a work by Mr. Charles B. Coale, entitled “The Life and Adventures of Wilburn Waters,” etc., Richmond, 1878, p. 136.
Mr. John Haywood (The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, p. 149) mentions painted figures of the sun, moon, a man, birds, etc., on the bluffs on the south bank of the Holston, 5 miles above the mouth of the French Broad. These are painted in red colors on a limestone bluff. He states that they were attributed to the Cherokee Indians, who made this a resting place when journeying through the region. This author furthermore remarks: “Wherever on the rivers of Tennessee are perpendicular bluffs on the sides, and especially if caves be near, are often found mounds near them, enclosed in intrenchments, with the sun and moon painted on the rocks,” etc.
Among the many colored etchings and paintings on rock discovered by the Pacific Railroad Expedition in 1853-’54 (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped., III, 1856, Pt. III, pp. 36, 37, Pll. 28, 29, 30) may be mentioned those at Rocky Dell Creek, New Mexico, which were found between the edge of the Llano Estacado and the Canadian River. The stream flows through a gorge, upon one side of which a shelving sandstone rock forms a sort of cave. The roof is covered with paintings, some evidently ancient, and beneath are innumerable carvings of footprints, animals, and symmetrical lines.