58 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



And his carving from the island of Palma is an obscure pictograph, of 

 which the writer has no solution to offer). 



Island of Hierro. 



"Besides the inscriptions which I had the pleasure of sending you, 

 and which you have so brilliantly interpreted, in turning over some 

 papers which I had forgotten, relating to different excursions made 

 to this island, I came across some that I do not remember to have 

 mentioned. In this state of doubt I take the liberty to send them. 



Inscriptions of La Dehesa. 



" These are engraved on strata of lava, some of a dark brown colour, 

 others of a reddish yellow, those of the latter tint presenting themselves 

 first when the superficial layer broke or peeled away. These same 

 characters are either in a dark brown or in a light gray ground, which 

 makes one suspect they were engraved at different periods, given the 

 uniformity of the state of the rock, and the depth of the layer. But 

 this is no place for premising, without serious foundation to support 

 it. The characters have a very marked savour of antiquity, and we 

 are disposed to believe that in order to trace them, stone chisels were 

 made use of, perhaps of phonolite (clinkstone) which abounds in those 

 regions, having been brought from other parts, and also hammers, 

 likewise of stone. Our people are under the impression that the 

 etchings were engraved with such instruments, and the sight of them 

 justifies the conjecture. Moreover, we have observed no bold strokes 

 nor sharp cuts, such as would be made by a metal chisel. These sites 

 present all the characteristics of having been inhabited in remote ages, 

 by the remains of curious edifices of a primitive type, which we do not 

 describe, so as not to overload the notes, like kitchen-middens in 

 increasing strata, by little altars or 'pireos,' on which the natives 

 sacrificed live ewes and kids. In the different mounds of lava, more or 

 less cleft by the wear of time, which has torn away from the foot of the 

 outside slope that forms, from east to west, as it were, a semicircle, and 

 which are found laid out on a ground more or less inclining to yellow 

 and grayish brown, consisting of granulated lava, mixed with hillocks 

 of sand, we copied the following inscriptions : — See Inscriptions IV., 



v., VI 



(There are over twenty altogether, but the rest are either mere 

 useless fragments of phonetic writing, or pictographs, which the writer 

 does not profess to decipher). 



