2G8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Thesaurus, and by Professor Rafn and his coadjutors in their various 

 publications, I found that all the characters or combinations of thern, 

 except one, were decidedly Runic, or could be so supposed on good 

 grounds ; and even that one might possibly be accounted for in some 

 of the known variations of the alphabet or its contractions. The last 

 two of the characters are precisely similar to the last two of the Runic 

 motto chosen by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, and 

 printed on some of their volumes. 



" In the Dighton Inscription not more than six or seven characters 

 are claimed as Runic, or even Phoenician, Punic, or foreign. Here are 

 eighteen at least. They are on the side of a ledge of rock near the 

 middle of the little island Mananas, or, as Williamson writes it, Me- 

 nannah, which is separated from Monhegan island only by a narrow 

 strait that forms the harbor of the latter. 



" The island of Monhegan is only about three leagues from the near- 

 est shore of the continent, and was very early and long frequented 

 after the English began to colonize the country. It consists of one 

 thousand acres, and has nearly one hundred inhabitants ; the little 

 island containing the inscription consists of but two acres. 



" The characters themselves were reported to me as being about six 

 inches in length, and from a quarter to half an inch deep. On the top 

 of the rock, also, are three excavations, made about one foot apart, 

 triangularly, from two to three inches in diameter, and about one inch 

 deep, as if for receiving a tripod. 



" My object, Mr. President, in making this communication, is, as I 

 have said, that, if any gentleman should feel disposed during the sum- 

 mer to visit that vicinity, either for health or pleasure, and has it in his 

 power, he may be induced to make a more accurate and minute copy, 

 or, what is better, take an impression either in papier mache, as has 

 been suggested to me by the Librarian of the AthenEeum, or in plaster 

 of Paris, clay, or some other substance, so that we may have a cer- 

 tainty of possessing what yet remains of the inscription itself, and 

 that a communication may be made to the Royal Society of Northern 

 Antiquafies at Copenhagen." 



Professor Horsford exhibited a globe, having a series of 

 parallel lines drawn upon it, to illustrate Foucault's pendu- 

 lum experiment, upon which he made some remarks. Further 

 comments upon tlie same subject were made by Professor 

 Peirce and Dr. B. A. Gould, Jr. 



