Inscriptions are monuments also, and of the highest value, even when we cannot read them. Some of these will be hereafter, since those of Egypt so long deemed inexplicable, have at last found interpreters. So it will be at a future day, with those of America. Few have been made known as yet, but there are many all over the range of the monumental regions. Those sculptured in the temples and palaces of _Otolum_ near Palenque, are not the only ones. Several in caves, or upon rocks, involve in rude painting, a symbolic meaning, to which we are obtaining a clue. Several nations of North America had a language of signs made or written; although known sometimes to but few, these signs or symbols prevailed from Origon[TN-13] to Chili--or else _Quipos_ as in China, were used as records, in coloured strings or knots, wampums, belts, collars. All these however, appear to belong to the first attempt of mankind to perpetuate ideas, they seem to have preceded the alphabets of India, Persia and Europe, or the vocal signs of China, although some of these date of the earliest ages. Tula, Oaxaca, Otolum, &c., had glyphs or a kind of combined alphabet, where the letters or syllables were blended into words, as in our anagrams, and not in serial order. A few traces of Alphabets have, however, been found in South America on the R. Cauca and elsewhere, which have not yet obtained sufficient atteution:[TN-14] that of Cauca given by Humboldt, is nearly Pelagic or Etruscan; traces of Runic signs were found in Carolina--other signs have occasionally been met in North America, but neglected. Painted symbols or hieroglyphies,[TN-15] or sometimes abridged outlines of them, were used chiefly in Anahuac, from Panuco to Panama; in North America, from Florida to New Mexico, also in Cuba, Hayti, Yucatan, Bogota, Peru, by the Panos, Muyzcas and other nations. Those without any means to convey ideas could even in America, as in Scythia and Africa, use emblems or objects to which a peculiar meaning was applied, and trace rude pictures of them on trees or rocks. The monuments connected with pictures, emblems, hieroglyphics, scattered in caves, on rocks, on cliffs above human reach--are very curious, and ought to be collected, sought for, and explained; they will all impart historical events. The rock of Taunton and a few others, have alone exercised the ingenuity of antiquarians, and perhaps to little purpose at yet, since the inscription has been ascribed by turns to the Phenicians, the Jews, the Atlantes, Norwegians or even to our modern tribes. It may not be properly understood until all the graphic systems of America are studied and explained. The late successful attempt of the Cherokis to obtain a syllabic alphabet for their language, proves that the Americans were not devoid of graphic ingenuity.