Fig. 68.—Petroglyphs, Wellsville, Ohio.
On the Ohio side of the river, 1 mile above Wellsville, there is a large group of sculptures on a flat sand rock of the coal series, scarred by floating ice and flood wood. They are only visible in low water, as they are only 2 or 3 feet above the extreme low stage of the river. * * * They are made in double outline and not by a single deep channel. The outlines are a series of dots made with a round-pointed instrument, seldom more than half an inch deep.
The upper design is a rattlesnake with a fancy head and tail. Its length is 4½ feet, a very clumsy affair, but intended for the common yellow rattlesnake of the West. The head of the snake, which occupies a space 6 inches square, is represented in the second character, which is reduced from a tracing size of nature. It brings to mind the horned snake of the Egyptians, which was an object of worship by them.
The character at the left hand of the lower line may be an uncouth representation of a demon or evil spirit. The right-hand character is probably an otter carrying a vine or string in his month.
It is more probable that the lines from the mouth of the animal indicate magic or supernatural power, of which many examples appear in this paper, as also of the device in the region of the animal’s heart, from which a line extends to the mouth. These characteristics connect the glyph with the Ojibwa drawings on bark.
OREGON.
Many bowlders and rock escarpments at and near the Dalles of the Columbia river, Oregon, are covered with incised or pecked glyphs. Some of them are representations of human figures, but characters of other forms predominate.
Mr. Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports the discovery by him, in 1878, of rock etchings 4 miles from Gaston, Oregon, and 2½ miles from the ancient settlement of the Tuálati (or Atfálati) Indians. These etchings are about 100 feet above the valley bottom on six rocks of soft sandstone, projecting from the grassy hillside of Patten’s valley, opposite Darling Smith’s farm, and are surrounded with timber on two sides.
This sandstone ledge extends for one-eighth of a mile horizontally along the hillside, upon the projecting portions of which the inscriptions are found. These rocks differ greatly in size, and slant forward so that the inscribed portions are exposed to the frequent rains of that region. The first rock, or that one nearest the mouth of the canyon, consists of horizontal zigzag lines and a detached straight line, also horizontal. On another side of the same rock is a series of oblique parallel lines. Some of the most striking characters found upon other exposed portions of the rock appear to be human figures, i. e., circles to which radiating lines are attached, and bear indications of eyes and mouth, long vertical lines running downward as if to represent the body, and terminating in a furcation, as if intended for legs, toes, etc. To the right of one figure is an arm and three-fingered hand (similar to some of the Moki characters), bent downward from the elbow, the humerus extending at a right angle from the body. Horizontal rows of short vertical lines are placed below and between some of the figures, probably numerical marks of some kind.