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tation of these inscriptions, which have baffled the efforts of 
so many learned men. 
The author read to the Academy i. translation of the 
sixth and seventh tables, (those written in the Roman cha- 
racter), which he selected as containing matter of great inte- 
rest to the inhabitants of these countries, being a record of 
the discovery of the use of the magnetic needle in naviga- 
tion, and of the British Islands, by the ancient Etruscans. 
The following is an abstract of the facts recorded in these 
very ancient documents, according to Sir William Betham’s 
translation of them : 
The sixth table commences with an invitation to the 
people, to go “to divide and farm the western lands,” and to 
proceed to the west, “where are three islands” of rich and 
productive soil, with cattle and sheep in abundance, and 
large black deer, productive of mines, with fine streams and 
every advantage for residence. It then proceeds to state, 
that the ships which were fitted out to convey settlers had 
been provided with stored food and abundant provisions for 
the voyage, with good water in skins to be served out daily ; 
that the skill and seamanship of the commanders and the 
men guaranteed their safety ; and that the people might ven- 
ture to go, with the most perfect confidence, over the ‘for 
ages untracked wilderness of the sea.’ Then is depicted the 
wretched system of coasting navigation, which confined the 
trader to the shores, amidst shoals, rocks, surfs, and other 
imminent dangers, all which had been overcome and avoided 
by the discovery of the little pointer, (the PIAC LU), by 
which they were enabled to cross from coast to coast in ‘ the 
same certain and established track ; and the high seas, which 
the mariner formerly contemplated with the greatest appre- 
hension when out of sight of land, might be crossed with 
certainty, avoiding all dangers in deep water. ‘‘ Jt was be- 
come trade’s plain, a noble space, an easy space, a shortened 
space, tracked space, man’s own space, the means of trade’s 
