ily remained while he made his trip to the Ohio Country. After his return he took up lands in western Pennsylvania. He was active in the French and Indian War and during its continuance he made a journey to the Cherokees of Georgia to enlist them in the war on behalf of the English. He died from smallpox in 1759. His sons were officers in the Revolution. One afterwards went to Kentucky where he had a large body of land given to him for his services. It is a matter of some interest that two of his descendants became candidates for the Vice-Presidency, F. P. Blair in 1868 and B. Gratz Brown in 1872.

The number of Englishmen who made trips to Ohio before the French and Indian war cannot be known. They have left no record of their business visits. Indian tradition speaks of them as early as 1725, yet most of the trade with the Indians before 1745 was done east of the mountains. But when the rivalry between the French and English began to be acute, the agents of the latter sought trade in the very heart of the western forests and shrank at no danger in the pursuit of his plans and purposes. In this he is supported by such persons as Sir Wm. Johnson and Reuben Weiser. The Ohio Land Company stood ready to aid in the project. Gist, Croghan, Montour and others are enlisted in the scheme and all do valiant service. Then persistence and boldness brought on the war. Geo. Washington was an actor in the struggle and his perilous journey of 1754 is an evidence of it.

While there was yet land enough on the eastern side of the mountains to satisfy every economic need, there was a longing for the half mythical regions of the west. And especially so when rivals were striving for its occupation. We know little of the anxieties, experiences and hardships assumed by the men of that distant day to obtain and hold a land that is now ours to share and enjoy.

THE INDIAN'S HEAD

HENRY BANNON

The white man, when he first crossed the Allegheny Mountains and entered the Ohio Valley, found many crude drawings of the figures of men and beasts on the rocks, along the Guyandotte and Ohio rivers. Of course it is not positively known whether these pictures were the work of Indians or of some tribes that preceded the Indians. On the Kentucky shore, about opposite the foot of Bond Street, Portsmouth, Ohio, there still stands one of these inscribed rocks, known as the "Indian's head." A hundred years ago, this rock, and the Indian head cut in it, could be seen when the river was low. But, owing to changes in the channel of the river, the rock is now visible only when the river is exceedingly low. And the face, carved on the rock, is beneath the water, even at its lowest stages. On September 9, 1894, the Ohio River was so low that about two feet of the rock was above the surface of the water; and the Indian head was about ten inches below the surface of the water. The head could be easily traced with the hand; and, in the morning, when the rising sun shone fairly on the water, above the sculpture, the Indian head was plainly visible, beneath the waters. Doubt has been expressed as to this figure's being the work of ancient tribes. There is a tradition that stone was quarried from the hill above it, during pioneer days, and that a quarryman carved the Indian face. Squier and Davis in "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (1847) thus described it:

"It consists of a colossal human head cut in outline, upon the vertical face of a large rock extending into the river. ways under water, except when the river is at its very lowest stages, and is not exposed oftener than once in four or five years.

It is familiarly known as the 'Indian's head,' and is regarded as a sort of river gauge or meter. When the water line is at the top of the head, the river is considered very low."

In those days there was the familiar frontier tendency to magnify the proportions of natural objects which tendency is now observed only by fishermen. Hence, Squier and Davis's description of the Indian head as "colossal". Neither saw it so they adopted as

a fact the impression of some one possessing a rather elastic imagination.

The rock, upon which the "Indian's head" is cut, was exposed during a period of low water in October, 1920. A short time prior to that low water stage some wickets of a dam in the Ohio river, a few miles west of Portsmouth, were broken by a steamer; otherwise water would have remained over the rock, because the dam when in repair creates a deep pool extending some distance beyond the location of the rock. As no picture or accurate description of the Indian's head was in ex

istence, my brother, Arthur H. Bannon, determined to secure a photograph of it, if possible. On October 22, 1920, the top of the sculpture was about six inches beneath the surface of the river so a plan to bring it into view for a photograph had to be devised. This was accomplished by running a motor boat past the rock at very fast speed. As the boat drew the water away from the rock, a photograph was obtained of the sculpture.

The difficulties in the way of a clear photograph were many, for the photographer was obliged to stand in the water and take the picture instantaneously, when the wave was at its lowest ebb, and while water was still running down the side of the rock. The work had to be done in the morning, while the sun was back of the camera, and at an hour when the atmosphere was still a little hazy and the light not good. The wickets had just been repaired and the river was slowly rising, so it

was then or never. Had there been sufficient time to do so, a cofferdam would have been built around the rock that it might be thoroughly examined. After several attempts to take a photograph of the sculpture, one was successful and we now have an exact reproduction of the image that has for many years been a mystery. The initials E. D. C., never noticed before, were discovered at the right and near the bottom of the sculpture, as one faces it, and a date, the month of which (September) only could be made out. The initials were neatly carved, evidently by one quite adept in stone carving. Such was the only time, within the memory of any living man, that the Indian's head has been seen, except when covered with water. In all probability neither the Indian's head, nor the rock upon which it is cut, will ever be seen again, as it is hardly within the realms of chance that the dam will be broken at such an opportune time.

Unquestionably the Indians head was not the work of a quarryman. It bears strong resemblance to other Indian carvings and impresses the mind with the fact that it is thoroughly Indian in its execution. The outline is cut in the southeast corner of the rock and faces east.

There is another rock, about one hundred yards upstream from the Indian rock, upon which some one in recent years carved an Indian profile with feathered head-dress, but this one is not the genuine Indian head, though frequently taken for it.