﻿52 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



ness, behind precipices, towering several hundred feet above the sea, 

 and its thorough archeological exploration is an affair of the future. 



On the mainland of New Brunswick a curious medallion-like stone 

 has been found near the road between St. Andrews and St. John, 

 below a cliff of similar material and beside Lake Utopia, a near 

 neighbor of the Passamaquoddy region. Its dimensions are con- 

 siderable, nearly two feet by more than a foot and a half, and it 

 bears a profile face, head, and neck in outline, shown in a drawing 

 accompanying a paper by J. Allen Jack. 1 He believed it to be Indian ; 

 but Mr. Mcintosh thinks not. It seems to be something of a mystery, 

 although no one has ascribed it to the Norsemen. 



Over the Bay of Fundy, at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, are two rocks 

 with strange markings ; one of these " inscriptions " being sometimes 

 translated " Harko's son addressed the men," though this is also cred- 

 ited to Nature's handiwork. I must agree with the Harko party to 

 the extent of counter-scepticism concerning the probability of long 

 mistaking rock-veins and the like for human letters. In that region 

 they do sometimes simulate character outlines and graven symbols 

 in a curious way, nevertheless almost anyone would distinguish 

 the truth at a second glance, if not straining for an argument. But 

 why should sensible Norsemen take so much pains to record such a 

 trivial incident? More likely it is the work of Micmac Indians, 

 or someone else equally removed from the Icelanders. Certainly it 

 has not been accepted by most investigators. There are Micmac rock- 

 pictures not far away at Fairy Lake. Also there are living Micmac 

 above Digby, nearer still. 



Rumors of the Norsemen linger about the Nova Scotia seaboard. 

 Of one isle we are quaintly told by a guide-book that Red Eric loved 

 to make it his special haunt — notwithstanding the plain testimony of 

 the saga that he was crippled by an accident in attempting to embark 

 with Thorstein, and took this for a warning to explore no farther, 

 so remained quietly in Greenland during the Wineland voyages. 

 There seems to be nothing tangible connecting any Norsemen with 

 the spot, which may not have been above water in their time. 



Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast, though really 

 promising on general principles, have yielded, I believe, only some 

 early Basque and English foundations and relics, no longer claimed as 

 Norse by anyone. Just below, southwestward at Miramichi on the 



1 J. Allen Jack : A Sculptured Stone Found in St. George, New Brunswick. 

 Smithsonian Rep.. 1881, p. 665. 



