Snakes, "End Stones," and Some Re-thinking

There's been a recent exchange of Serpent/Snake photos, as well as a post of comparison photos (Serpent Mounds of Stone), that I've really enjoyed and lifted these first 3 photos from - and I think is yet another step toward these Rock Piles becoming an accepted part of the view of "Turtle Island."

It's yet another pattern, repeated in yet another place, that forms increases the probability that this is a "thing," as they say in the scientific community, I believe (similar to "scientific fact.").

So I began a little re-thinking process that started with a row (that I've walked alongside since the early 1970's!) that I've come to think of as 'the backbone' and all these other rows that terminate with what I've come to think of as "end stones."

I'm starting to wonder, "Could these stone rows be representations of snakes?"

Backbone:

This is the 'end stone' of the 'backbone.' It's a black dot on the 1934 picture below, the backbone illustrated in red leading up to a rockshelter.

From perhaps an eighth of a mile away:

The rockshelter at the Tail End:

Here's the "another one:"

This is a really abused and damaged row near a popular spot for picnics, parties, and recreation for a couple hundred years. There have been numerous fireplaces built and removed, countless rocks no doubt taken to the edge of the waterfall that the row points to and tossed into the pool of water below - a lesser of two evils I suppose when you think of how many glass bottles have been tossed to cut the bare feet of countless generations of waders, past, present, and future.

There are similar rows and end stones that all also point to the same river on the opposite bank, above and below these falls, the latter at another waterfall:

(these photos appeared at: Stone Rows and Other Features)

Way, way up the branch of the river that flows over the Falls, I photographed yet another end stone and posted it at: More End Stones in April '09:

Now here's one that finally more closely resembles all those other serpents from Pete and Larry and Mike. Way, way up the river, more than a little more remote and out of the human influence such as the impulse to knock it apart and haul it away to build something or toss in the water to make a big splash etc.

Although it might be handy to make a property line, like many have become. And, now that I think of it, I remember that I got to this spot one day, following stone rows that led me out of where I was taking photos In the Mound Swamp, where Norman once suggested another snake, this one zigzag and best illustrated in the drawing below, the snakes head marked as the "end stone:"