OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 267 



Mr. Everett, from the committee on the Toronto Observa- 

 tory, made an oral report of the doings of the committee. 

 He also made some remarks on the importance of a system 

 of more extended scientific observations than can be carried 

 on by the cooperation of private individuals or of scientific 

 bodies ; and, on his motion, it was 



" Voted, That a committee of five be appointed by the chair to present 

 a memorial to Congress at the ensuing session, praying that an appro- 

 priation may be made to defray the expense of scientific observations, 

 to be taken under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, or otherwise, as may be deemed expedient by Congress." 



Messrs. Everett, Agassiz, Peirce, Bond, and Lovering were 

 appointed a committee to carry the above vote into effect. 



The following gentlemen were chosen Fellows of the 

 Academy : — 



Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., of New Haven ; 



Professor John P. Norton, of New Haven. 



Rev. Dr. Jenks exhibited a copy of an inscription on a rock 

 in the small island of Mananas, near the island of Monhegan, 

 and offered the following remarks : — 



" The great simplicity of the strokes, their resemblance to marks 

 for merely scoring articles, often made in the delivery of bulky mer- 

 chandise ; and the supposition, also, that they might have been the oc- 

 cupation of some idle hour, had led me to undervalue them, and speak 

 of them but slightingly. Since, however, mentioning them the last time, 

 before a meeting of the Antiquarian Society, I have had opportunity 

 of seeing the elaborate report on the subject of the American Indians, 

 made by Mr. Schoolcraft, in which he gives an index to the meaning 

 of the celebrated Dighton Inscription. This had been dilated on by 

 Professor Rafn, copiously. But Mr. Schoolcraft has apparently proved 

 that there are two inscriptions of widely differing origin, — that the 

 one may be Runic, and certainly is not Indian, since nothing of an 

 alphabetic character appears in any of their rock-paintings ; and that 

 the other is decidedly Indian, as testified by Chingwauk, his assistant 

 examiner and expert in Indian picture-narratives. 



" On reading this opinion, which appeared to mc more reasonable 

 than any I had seen, I reviewed my transcript, and, comparing it with 

 the various Runic alphabets of various ages exhibited by Hickes in his 



