Huntsville gazette., 1882-12-23
FOOt.Prints In the Rock.

! point Harpeth KlVer forms q horseshoe
bend, making a circuit of six miles, and
doubling back on itself to within eighty
or ninety yards. In the heel of the shoe
rises ridge, forming almost perpen-
dicular bluff on both sides extending
about half mile south in the direction
OF the toe of the shoe. 1t rises to the
height of about four hundred feet, and
at the highest point is not more than
eight feet wide on the top, with per-
| pendicular face on the east SIDE for one
| hundred feet or more-that is, plumb
line suspended from the edge of the
| precipice at the top would hang clear
for one hundred feet or more before it
would encounter any obstruction. The
ninety yards wide, but the slope which
brings it to that width at the bottom is
mostly on the western side. At the
highest point on the crest of this ridge
is a fiat surface rock, and on that rock
are imprinted six and half tracks of
human feet These tracks are indented
into the rock as much as a quarter of
an inch, or in some places more. The
tracks are of bare feet, the toes all point
ing in the same direction toward the
east. Most of the tracks are as perfect
as if they had been imprinted on moist
sand or earth. They are in three pairs.
The first or largest pair is furthest north.
They are less than the average size
mans foot, and larger than the average
| size woman's foot, one little in adj
vance of the other. The next pair is on
the south side, but near to the first. IN
size and appearance they representtthe,
tracks of child of sixteen or eighteen.
months old. The track of the rightfoot
of this pair is turned in a little at the.
toes, and the toes of that foot are turned
down, as we often see children when
| first learning to walk seem. to endeavor
to clutch the floor with their toes, as if
to avoid falling or slipping. The topo-
| graphical relation of these tracks to the
large ones indicates thatthe child might
have been holding to the finger or hand
of the larger person.
South Of these little tracks, but isnear
to them, the third pair, indicating
child some four or six years old. These
last were made by beautiful pair Of
feet, and are as pretty tracks as child
ever made in the dust or soft earth. Ali
of these tracks are within three or four
feet of the edge of the preclpice on the
eastern side, as already described. But
| have said there was, half q track,
which is the most interesting feature on
the tablet. This half track is printed on
the very edge of the precpice, and re-
presents the heel and hinder half of the
foot from the middle of the instep back,
and would indicate that the toes and
front part of the foot projected over the
precipice or that the rock had broken
off at that point. The half track is of
the large size foot, or foot of the adult
person, and is Immediately in front of
the large pair of tracks already mem
toned.
just here some interesting questions
arise. Who made those tracks? How
were they made and when were they
made? was born within half mile
of the spot, and lived there until [ was
twenty years old. In my youth [ often
stood upon the rock to enjoy the wild,
romantic and picturesque scenery sur
rounding, and at one time and another
have spent many hours of my boyhood
upon it, but never saw the tracks nor
even heard of them being there. Some
seven or eight weeks ago. was in the
neighborhood, in company with my
youngest son, and took him p-to' the
rock to show him spot that had been
interesting to me in my boy
hood days While sitting on the rock
he discovered one of the small tracks.
They had evidently been discovered be-
fore, for they were all covered with
moss except that one, and it had been,
but someone had manifestly been pick
ing the moss out to make it more dis
tinct. He called my attention to it. 1t
excited our curiosity, and we then made
careful search for others, and found
the six and a half tracks described
They were all covered in moss, except
the one which had been partially re-
vealed by picking the moss out. l.then
INQUIRED of several of the surrounding
neighbors, but could find no one who
had ever seen or heard of them. If they
were cut by chisel, it must have been
by an artist of no mean ability-such
an artist as certainly never resided in
that neighborhood. But why should an
artist of such capacity have gone to the
out-of-the- way place to amuse himself
cutting tracks where they would not be
discovered by human being until they
were overgrown with moss, and where
the oldest inhabitants in the neighbor-
hood have never heard of them; not
even the owner of the land on which the
rock is situated, and why cut the halt
track on the edge of the precipiceP I'm
der other circumstances it might be
supposed the tracks were made by the
tread of human feet, at a time when the
surface was soft, and it afterwards hard
ened into rock and the impressions be-
came fixed. But this theory is not
plausible, from the fact that in this eli
mate we have constant rains and winds,
and in the winter time frost, and the
place is so exposed that it is scarcely
possible that tracks made in the soft
earth or sand could have withstood the
action of the weather long enough to
have hardened into stone. But, if made
in this way, when was it done and who
did itp Doubtless it was in the long
ages past, and the size of the tracks
would suggest the possibility, If not the
probability that they were the tracks of
a mother and her two children; that
che NAV have had the smaller one bV