A CURIOUS INDIAN RELIC. 



73 



A CUEIOUS INDIAN EELIC. 



By CHAELES 0. ABBOTT, M. D. 



AMONG the several thousands of Indian relics gathered by the 

 writer, in the immediate vicinity of Trenton, New Jersey, there 

 has occurred one wholly different from all the others, and which bears 

 some resemblance to the Avell-known Indian bark-letters, as figured 

 by Schoolcraft and Catlin ; but this inscribed stone is far more primi- 

 tive than these. The specimen (as shown in the following diagram) 

 is a slab of impure mica or micaceous slate, about an inch in thick- 

 ness, seven inches in length, and four and three-fourths inches in 



greatest width. The edges have been rudely beveled, and the speci- 

 men chipped into its present shape previous to the inscribing of the 

 peculiar markings which characterize the relic. 



These consist of a series of well-defined lines, one extending the 

 entire length of the specimen, and dividing it into two nearly equal 

 parts or surfaces. There are also three well-defined lines crossing 



