152 ~— Finch on the Celtic Antiquities of America. 
On my arrival in this country, I thought | had left the 
land of Celts and Druids far behind me, and great was my 
astonishment, on a perusal of Silliman’s Philosophical Jour- 
nal, when I read in the second volume, page 200, to which 
the reader is requested to refer, the description of a most 
noble cromlech, although the writer, the Rev. Elias Corne- 
lius, is evidently not aware of the valuable relic of antiqui- 
ty which he has described. It is mentioned by that gentle- 
mab on account of a geological fact supposed to be con- 
nected with it ; the highest stone is of granite, and the pil- 
lars which support it are of primitive limestone, which is 
therefore supposed to be of equal age with the granite 
above; but in fact, it isa magnificent cromlech, and the 
most ancient and venerable monument which America pos- 
sesses, and establishes a common origin between the Abo- 
rigines who erected this monument, and the nations who 
erected similar cromlechs in other parts of the world. 
It is thus described :—* In the town of North-Salem, and 
State of New-York, is a rock which, from the singularity 
of its position, has long attracted the notice of those who 
live in its vicinity ; and being near the public road, seldom 
escapes the notice of the passing traveller. Although 
weighing many tons, its breadth being ten feet, and great- 
est circumference forty feet, it stands elevated in different 
parts, from two to five feet above the earth, resting i 
whole weight upon the apices of seven small conical pillars. 
Six of these, with their bases either united or contiguous, 
spring up lke an irregular groupe of teeth, and constitute 
the support of one end of the rock. The remaining pillar 
supports the other end, and stands at the lowest part of the 
surface over which the rock is elevated. 
“ Notwitstanding the form of the rock is very irregular, 
and its surface aneven, its whole weight is so nicely adjust- 
ed upon these seven small points, that no external force 
yet applied, has been sufficient to give it even a tremu- 
lous motion. There is no mountain or other elevation 
near it, from which the rock could have been thrown.” 
Geologists in Europe have made an attack upon 
some of these ancient monuments, and assert that they were 
produced by the decomposition of rocks of granite; but in 
this instance, the pillars underneath being of limestone; 
and the large stone on the top of granite, we cannot con- 
