NORSEMEN IN NORTH AMERICA— BR0NDSTED 379 



that they were presumably used by the same man? Were they found 

 in Canada's soil ? The first two questions may be answered in the 

 affii-mative. What about the last one ? 



In the Canadian Historical Review for September 1941 (p. 254 

 et seq.) there is a survey of evidence drawn up by O. C. Elliott, of 

 Kingston, Ontario, coupled with statements of views by C. T. Currelly, 

 former director of the Royal Ontario Museum, and Mr. Elliott. 

 Wliereas Currelly accepts the authenticity of the find report, Elliott 

 is more skeptical and is inclined to the belief that the objects came 

 from Norway and were brought to Canada in recent time. The 

 reports of the find are briefly as follows. 



James Edward Dodd, of Port Arthur, a railroad man and pros- 

 pector, tells that he was sampling a vertical quartz vein near Beard- 

 more on May 24, 1930. A large birch stub was in his way and he 

 blasted it out with dynamite. This revealed the iron objects. Six 

 and a half years later (December 3, 1936) Mr. Dodd sold his dis- 

 covery to the Royal Ontario Museum, on which occasion he gave the 

 following details: "3y2 feet down . . . Under big birch stub, 2^2 

 feet in diameter . . . Dome of rust, slightly flat, about the size of 

 a goose egg, over 'handle-bar' . . . Thrown out and left on surface 

 of ground till 1933." 



A good two years later (February 3, 1939) Mr. Dodd says, in an 

 affidavit made before a solicitor of Port Arthur : 



While shovelling out this loosened earth to lengthen the trench, my shovel 

 struck some pieces of old iron, which were thrown out on top of the dump. 

 I paid no attention to these scraps at the time, merely wondering if they were 

 Indian relics . . . The relics lay on the dump for a day or two and were car- 

 ried to the cabin on the claim where they lay on the banking of the cabin 

 till I left for Port Arthur in a few days ... a sword which I broke in two as 

 I was taking it out of the ground ... I had seen in the trench also what 

 looked like a shallow bowl but this shattered when my spade touched it . . . 

 I took the relics to my home at 296 Wilson Street, Port Arthur, in May or June 

 1930, and they were never out of my possession till I sold them to Dr. Currelly. 



John Drew Jacobs relates three times (December 9, 1936, June 

 1937, and undated) that he saw in the rock a very distinct imprint of 

 the sword : "The stain of the complete shape of the sword as it had 

 lain was very plainly marked on the rock and this stain could not 

 have been made unless the metal had lain on the rock for a long 

 period of years." But he was unable to find any impression of the 

 ax on the rock. 



According to Currelly, Dodd told him that "lying over the bar of 

 metal was something like a bowl that was rusted into little fragments. 

 He [Dodd] had just shovelled them out." In 1937 and 1938 Profes- 

 sor Mcllwraith and Mr. Curran, respectively, together with Dodd, 

 . discovered at the find spot small iron fragments "which might be 

 part of the 'boss'." 



