Identification of tlie British Inch as the Unit of Measure. 237 



sameness. So, too, it presents the same features which Mr. Ran 

 notices as to the Palenque productions. He says : " Any one who 

 examines the rei)resentation of the Smithsonian tablet will he 

 struck with the want of symmetry of its sculptures and its incor. 

 rect (artistically) outline. -•- This asymmetrical appearance of the 

 slab, is not at all owing to its restoration, as might be imagined at 

 first sight, but simply to a lack of precision on the part of the 

 sculptor. * * Though the has relief figures on it show a com- 

 mendable finish, the total aspect of the sculpture is not that of a 

 well executed work, at least not in our sense. The Palenque 

 Cross shows some incongruities in the proportions of its parts, and 

 the glyphic signs and ornaments, are not disposed in an absolutely 

 harmonious order. "^ -■= * The absence of accurateness in the 

 execution of details observable at Palenque did not escai)e More- 

 let's critical judgment. ' The ruins of Palenque ' he says ' have 

 been perhaps too much eulogized. They are magnificent certainly 

 in their antique boldness and strength, but I must say, without 

 contesting their architectural merit, that they do not justify, in their 

 details, all the enthusiasm of archaeologists. The ornamental lines 

 are wanting in regularity, the drawings in (modern artistic) sym- 

 metry, and the sculpture in finish. ' " The artist had all the men- 

 tal conceptions, but he lacked the perfect skill of the later (rreek, 

 or of our day, for the artistic perfection of his work. The work 

 was "irregularly regular" to quote the apt expression of Mr. Gest; 

 and so peculiarly so, as to confirm its genuineness. Perhaps the 

 chief reason of all this was the lack of adequate instruments for 

 working in hard stone. " Instruments of flint, or some other hard 

 stone were much better suited for that purpose, " says Mr. Ran, 

 speaking of the obduracy of the stone of the Palenque Tablet. 

 And, indeed, stone chisels were all the Mound Builders could have 

 had for working the Gest tablet. .Mr. Rau describes the tablet of 

 the Palenque Cross as being t,^ inches thick, and consisting of a 

 hard fine grained sand-stone of yellowish gray color ; the relief of 

 the sculpture being j-^g of an inch. 



As to material, the Gridley measure is likewise a hard tine 

 grained sand-stone of yellowish gray color, Vgths of an inch thick. 

 The Gest tablet answers, for material, also to this description, 

 though the grain of the stone may be a trifie coarser than that of 

 the Gridley measure. The Gest tablet is ^ths of an inch thick, 

 and the relief of the sculpture is /gths of an inch, distinctly de- 



