which was, to read the Runick letters diagonally, and again with the same success.  With an excitement pardonable under the circumstances, yet tempered with thankful humility, I now applied my last and severest trial, my experimentum crucis.  I turned the stone, now doubly precious in my eyes, with scrupulous exactness upside down.  The physical exertion so far displaced my spectacles as to derange for a moment the focus of vision.  I confess that it was with some tremulousness that I readjusted them upon my nose, and prepared my mind to bear with calmness any disappointment that might ensue.  But, O albo dies notanda lapillo! what was my delight to find that the change of position had effected none in the sense of the writing, even by so much as a single letter!  I was now, and justly, as I think, satisfied of the conscientious exactness of my interpretation.  It is as follows: 

            HERE
     BJARNA GRIMOLFSSON
  FIRST DRANK CLOUD-BROTHER
  THROUGH CHILD-OF-LAND-AND-WATER: 

that is, drew smoke through a reed stem.  In other words, we have here a record of the first smoking of the herb Nicotiana Tabacum by an European on this continent.  The probable results of this discovery are so vast as to baffle conjecture.  If it be objected, that the smoking of a pipe would hardly justify the setting up of a memorial stone, I answer, that even now the Moquis Indian, ere he takes his first whiff, bows reverently toward the four quarters of the sky in succession, and that the loftiest monuments have been read to perpetuate fame, which is the dream of the shadow of smoke.  The Saga, it will be remembered, leaves this Bjarna to a fate something like that of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on board a sinking ship in the ‘wormy sea,’ having generously given up his place in the boat to a certain Icelander.  It is doubly pleasant, therefore, to meet with this proof that the brave old man arrived safely in Vinland, and that his declining years were cheered by the respectful attentions of the dusky denizens of our then uninvaded forest.  Most of all was I gratified, however, in thus linking forever the name of my native town with one of the most momentous occurrences of modern times.  Hitherto Jalaam, though in soil, climate, and geographical position as highly qualified to be the theatre of remarkable historical incidents as any spot on the earth’s surface, has been, if I may say it without seeming to question the wisdom of Providence, almost maliciously neglected, as it might appear, by occurrences of world-wide interest in want of a situation.  And in matters of this nature it must be confessed that adequate events are as necessary as the vates sacer to record them.  Jaalam stood always modestly ready, but circumstances made no fitting response to her generous intentions.  Now, however, she assumes her place on the historick roll.  I have hitherto been a zealous opponent of the Circean herb, but I shall now reexamine the question without bias.