[gaxong] stone medallion OF LAKE UTOPIA 93 



kind of stone masonry was the building of walls, and not stone carving. 

 If, further, the fact seems pertinent that St. George is a seat of a 

 thriving industry in monumental granite and the home of many 

 skilled carvers, sufficient answer is found in the fact that this industry 

 did not originate until 1873, a decade after the stone was found. 

 As to fraud by Colonel Wetmore, Mr. Ward, and Sheriff Harding, 

 who were indeed jovial sportsmen, said to have been fond of practical 

 joking, there seems on the one hand no question that they obtained 

 the stone from Laney who found it, while, on the other there was 

 never any trace of the denouement, and exposure at somebody's 

 expense, which is an indispensible part of the working of a practical 

 joke. Moreover these three men were leading citizens of their com- 

 munities, and all of high character and ability; and however willing 

 to play temporary jokes on one another or even their communities,' 

 they were not the kind who could plot to foist a fraud of this sort 

 permanently on the public. As to the possibility of fabrication by 

 someone unknown, and the "planting" of the stone where Laney 

 found it, there seems no foothold in the records, or reason, for such 

 an origin. 



All told, accordingly, the genuineness of the stone as a relic of 

 older times seems abundantly established. 



Origin 



Its genuineness and antiquity accepted, we ask the origin of 

 the stone, as to which we have no direct knowledge but only a choice 

 of four possibilities, — that it is Indian, extinct race, Norse, or early 

 French. 



Indian. Found at a Lake known as a favourite Indian resort, 

 the natural first impulse of those interested in the stone, all unversed 

 in archaeology as they were, was to take it for Indian work, especially 

 as confirmatory suggestion was apparently not wanting from the 

 living Indians of the region. Yet there seems not the least possibility 

 of such an origin. No Indian work approaching it in difficulty, 

 elaboration, or character has ever been found in this part of America, 

 and the gap between this stone and the most elaborate known pro- 

 duct of aboriginal workmanship by our Indians is so great as to 

 signify not degree but kind. No relation can be adduced between 

 this stone and the pipes and other objects which our present Indians 

 carve, for these are cut by steel knives from soft stone, and the 

 decoration consists of familiar animals or patterns. To shape and 

 carve so hard a stone as this granite medallion with flint tools, the 



