Mr. Kendal’s account of the Dighton rock. 169 
markable. ; but if, as there may be reason to believe, the pyramid is a 
figure in masonry, originating in Egypt out of local circumstances, and 
from that alone derived to those circumjacent, the fact of a pyramidal 
figure in the rock, artificially produced, might be made to give sup- 
port to theories, false or true, of the transatlantic origin of the inscrip- 
tion, and thus affect the great point or points of history, which it may 
one day be found sufficient to elucidate. Independently too on the 
hypothesis, which respects the exclusive origin of the pyramid, the 
state, in which the rock was found or left by the artist, must necessa- 
rily influence our judgment in a variety of particulars. 
I come now to speak of the inscription; and first, of its execu- 
tion. Before_I saw the original I had seen the several copies made 
by Messrs. Sewall, Winthrop, and Baylies. I found that the first con- 
veyed too mean, and the third too high an idea of the execution. 
The execution, an adequate instrument supposed, is nothing extraor- 
dinary ; but it is not entirely unworkmanlike. The lines, though 
~ most of the draughts, including Mr. Winthrop’s, have represented 
them as true, are not so ; but they are firm. As to the mode of exe- 
cution, that appears to be no other than the use of a pointed tool; of 
necessity harder and less brittle, than the very hard and brittle rock, 
on which it has wrought. In some parts of the inscription the marks 
of a pointed tool are still distinctly visible ; and where this is not the 
tase, the chissel at least will be excluded from the calculation. The 
upper figures, on inspection, on the rock may be thought rather the 
work ofthe gouge, than of a pointed tool, It is certain, that the use of 
the latter is not so obvious in these, as in the lower figures ; but the 
surface of the lower region of the face is more worn, than the upper 5 ; 
the figures are consequently less sunk, and I suppose, that a! 
this cause and effect the pecking of the tool i is rendered more conspi¢ 
uous. Be this as it may, the lines, forming some of the lower ‘fig: 
22 
