Pipestone County. This celebrated locality, including the region of the "pipestone quarry" is shown on Plate VII of pictographs. The rock bench, or bluffs, facing west, which rises to an extreme height of about 25 feet, runs under the prairie level at the north and toward the south, but the bare rock also appears along the line of the quarry pits, as well as at the "3 Maidens". It is only at the "3 Maidens" that the figures are engraved on the rock.

Plate VIII shows drawings made by Mr. Lewis. They are in the main isolated and disconnected figures, though with some overlapping. This fact is apparent not only from the illustations of R. Cronau, the figures published by the writer in 1884, the figures drawn by T.H. Lewis and reproduced here, but also by a set of 17 photographs presented to the Minnesota Historical Society by Mr C. H. Bennett, of Pipestone City, made from nature. This relieves the onus of the complaint by Dr. W. H. Holmes that by the writer, in 1884, the original order was destroyed, and that some presumed "arrangement of mythical personages and positions usual in the aboriginal ceremonials of the region" had thus been lost to archeology.

The writer remarked in 1884: "In some cases there is a connection of several figures by a continuous line, chipped in the surface of the rock in such a manner as if some legend were narrated, but for the most part the figures are isolated." This remark is all the evidence there ever was that would warrant the hypothesis of Dr. Holmes, and, in the light of everything that has transpired since, it is plain that that evidence is very slight.

According to Mr.Lewis the pictographs on the horizontal quartzyte surfaces at the "3 Maidens" are of three classes:

1. Those made with some round pointed implement.

2. Those made by hacking or cutting, as with a narrow-bitted chisel.

3. Those that were first pecked or cut out and then smoothly polished.

The last mentioned are apparently the oldest, and they are much harder to trace, and made doubly so by other carved lines covering or overlapping them.

The same distinction was made by Mr. Lewis amongst the pictographs seen on the quartzyte range in Cottonwood county, i. e., that there was an older series which had been polished after being cut out. No one else has ever noticed that distinction. The blowing of dust and sand over these quartzyte surfaces polishes them. It is quite possible that the oldest pictographs have been thus polished but that two dynasties of aboriginal carving may be predicated on such a distinction is very questionable.

It is impossible to determine the date of any of them, for in some instances a portion of a figure appears very ancient, and other portions seem to be of a more recent date, but a careful examination of both parts with a glass shows them to be one in the same. The quartzyte is indestructable in the weather.

The overlapping and inferences of the figures would not necessarily mean that they are widely of different dates, nor would differences in the workmanship, for the figures may have been placed there on the same day by different individuals.

The drawings made by Mr. Lewis were from slabs owned by Mr. C. H. Bennett, several of them being 2ft. by 2½ft. On the first slab were figures 1 to 10, Nos 1 to 4 overlapping; slab No. 2 contained figure 11; slab 3 contained figure 12; slab 4 contained fig. 13; slab 5 contained fig. 14; slab 6 contained fig 15, slab 7 contained figs 16 to 21; slab 8 contained fig. 22; slab 9 contained fig. 23; slab 10 contained figs 24 to 26; slab 11 contained fig. 27; slab 12 contained figs. 28 to 30; slab 13 contained figs.31 and 32; slab 14 contained figs. 33 to 35, overlapping more or less; slab 15 contained fig. 36; slab 16 contained fig. 37; slab 17 contained fig. 38; slab 18 contained figs. 39 and 40; slab 19 contained figs 41 and 42; slab 20 contained fig. 43, slab 21 contained figs. 44~ and 45, slab 22 contained figs. 46 and 47; slab 23 contained figs. 48 and 49; slab 24 contained figs. 50 to 53; slab 25 contained figs. 54 and 55; slab 26 contained figs. 56 and 57; slab 27 contained figs. 58 to 61, 58 to 60 overlapping; slab 28 contained figs. 62 to 64, 63 and 64 connected; slab 29 contained figs. 65 to 70, 69 and 70 c0nnected; slab 30 contained fig.71; slab 31 contained fig. 72; slab 32 contained fig. 73; slab 33 contained figs. 74 to 76; slab 34 contained fig. 77;slab 35 contained figs. 78 and 79.

The grooves are cut from from one eighth to three eighths of an inch deep.Had there been any evident legend narrated by the manner of succession of these figures it is highly improbable that it would have been unnoticed by the late observers.

The "3 Maidens" rest on red quartzyte, the color of which ranges from dark red to light pink. The pictographs are on the quartzyte only, at and around the base of the six boulders, mostly on the south side but there are a few on the north side and on the quartzyte between the boulders. The surface of the quartzyte is slightly undulatory, with numerous seams and cracks, cutting it into slabs of various sizes with irregular outlines. These slabs, carrying the engravings, have largely been taken up by Mr. Bennett and others and preserved.