inscription to whose fortunate discovery I have heretofore alluded.  Well may we say with the poet, Multa renascuntur quae jam cecidere.  And I would premise, that, although I can no longer resist the evidence of my own senses from the stone before me to the ante-Columbian discovery of this continent by the Northmen, gens inclytissima, as they are called in Palermitan inscription, written fortunately in a less debatable character than that which I am about to decypher, yet I would by no means be understood as wishing to vilipend the merits of the great Genoese, whose name will never be forgotten so long as the inspiring strains of “Hail Columbia” shall continue to be heard.  Though he must be stripped also of whatever praise may belong to the experiment of the egg, which I find proverbially attributed by Castilian authours to a certain Juanito or Jack, (perhaps an offshoot of our giant-killing my thus,) his name will still remain one of the most illustrious of modern times.  But the impartial historian owes a duty likewise to obscure merit, and my solicitude to render a tardy justice is perhaps quickened by my having known those who, had their own field of labour been less secluded, might have found a readier acceptance with the reading publick.  I could give an example, but I forbear:  forsitan nostris ex ossibus oritur ultor.

Touching Runick inscriptions, I find that they may be classed under three general heads:  1 deg..  Those which are understood by the Danish Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, and Professor Rafn, their Secretary; 2 deg..  Those which are comprehensible only by Mr Rafn; and 3º.  Those which neither the Society, Mr Rafn, nor anybody else can be said in any definite sense to understand, and which accordingly offer peculiar temptations to enucleating sagacity.  These last are naturally deemed the most valuable by intelligent antiquaries, and to this class the stone now in my possession fortunately belongs.  Such give a picturesque variety to ancient events, because susceptible oftentimes of as many interpretations as there are individual archaeologists; and since facts are only the pulp in which the Idea or event-seed is softly imbedded till it ripen, it is of little consequence what colour or flavour we attribute to them, provided it be agreeable.  Availing myself of the obliging assistance of Mr. Arphaxad Bowers, an ingenious photographick artist, whose house-on-wheels has now stood for three years on our Meeting-House Green, with the somewhat contradictory inscription,—­“Our motto is onward,”—­I have sent accurate copies of my treasure to many learned men and societies, both native and European.  I may hereafter communicate their different and (me judice) equally erroneous solutions.  I solicit also, Messrs. Editors, your own acceptance of the copy herewith inclosed.  I need only premise further, that the stone itself is a goodly block of metamorphick sandstone, and that the Runes resemble very nearly the ornithichnites