Along the river courses in northern and western Pennsylvania many rocks are found bearing traces of carvings, though, on account of the character of the geological formations, some of them are nearly obliterated.
In 1875 Mr. P. W. Shafer published in a historical map of Pennsylvania several groups of pictographs. These had before appeared in a rude and crowded form in the Transactions of the Anthropological Institute of New York, 1871-’72, page 66, where the localities are mentioned as “Big” and “Little” Indian rocks, respectively. One of these rocks is in the Susquehanna river, below the dam at Safe harbor, and the drawing clearly shows its Algonquian origin. The characters are nearly all either animals or various forms of the human body. Birds, bird tracks, and serpents also occur. A part of this pictograph is presented below, Fig. 1089.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman visited this place during the autumn of 1889 and made sketches of the petroglyphs. The Algonquian type of delineation of objects is manifest.
The rock known as “Big Indian rock” is in the Susquehanna river, three-fourths of a mile below the mouth of Conestoga creek and about 400 yards from the eastern bank of the Susquehanna. It is one of many, but larger than any other in the immediate vicinity, measuring about 60 feet in length, 30 feet in width, and an average height of about 20 feet. The upper surface is uneven, though smoothly worn, and upon this are pecked the characters, shown in Fig. 70.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.--Big Indian rock, Pennsylvania.]
The characters, through exposure to the elements, are becoming rather indistinct, though a few of them are pecked so deep that they still present a depression of from one-fourth to one-half an inch in depth. The most conspicuous objects consist of human figures, thunder birds, and animals resembling the panther.
“Little Indian rock” is also situated in the Susquehanna river, one-fourth of a mile from the eastern bank and a like distance below the mouth of Conestoga creek. This rock, also of hard micaceous schist, is not so large as the one above mentioned, but bears more interesting characters, the most conspicuous being representations of the thunder bird, serpents, deer and bird tracks, etc.