Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/43

 profession of engineering, his Indian studies and photography having been a hobby with him for many years.

Numerous picture rocks are found in Oregon, especially along the Columbia River, the Snake River, the Owyhee River, around the Oregon City region, Gaston and Cascadia. There are more picture rocks in the vicinity of The Dalles than in any other place in the world.

These picture rocks are divided into two general groups—the petroglyphs and the pictographs. Many of these carvings are both. There is a possibility they were all originally painted.

As time dimmed and erased the older pictures, new ones were placed right over the old. Thus records of centuries have been engraved on the same rock.

The methods used in making the carvings was a constant pecking with a gravel rock chiseled to a sharp point.

Some are picture writings without a doubt, while some are just plain pictures. No one knows what the greatest part of them represent, and no one will ever know. There are many clearly recognizable pictures of the sun, moon, elk, deer, fish and coyote.

The water devil is a sign found around the fishing places. These are danger signs. Fishing is dangerous there because the water devil is waiting to grab the fisherman into the rushing stream.

One sign commonly found along the coast region is the thunder bird. The Indians believed that thunder was made by this bird clapping its wings together. If a storm should arise while they were out in their canoes, and if they should meet with some fatal disaster, it was believed that the thunder bird had devoured them.

The Indians used to own their own private family fishing site. This was designated on the rocks above it. Tribal and family signs were usually marked by the cat. This site was passed down from generation to generation.

On one rock in the vicinity of The Dalles was found a picture of the sun, moon, the heart, and lungs, a cat, and