Mr, Kendal’s account of the Dighton rock. 179 
purporting, that some years ago there were several rods of dry land 
between the rock and the river, yet on direct inquiry I found, that the 
oldest person neither remembered to have seen nor to haye heard of 
any thing different from the present state of the banks and stream. 
I submit with deference, that Mr. Winthrop is inconsistent with 
himself, and has too hastily relied on the information given him, when, 
after stating, that the inscription reaches to within eight inches of the 
ground, he relates, that the country people by digging, in the vain 
hope of finding treasure, have let in the tide upon the rock. It is, I 
believe, acknowledged, that forty years ago much labour was expend- 
ed in digging about the rock with the view described ;_ but it ought 
to occur to us, that the fact of letting in the tide implies, not only the 
removal and disturbance, but the carrying away of an enormous quan- 
tity ofearth ; that to produce any thing like the effect pretended (the 
digging being unquestionably around the rock), the previous level of 
the soil must have been, not only eight inches, but more than eight 
feet above the present, (since nothing less would exclude the tide) ; 
that the rock, the height of which is five feet, instead of being, as now, 
sometimes under wrter, must then have been always under ground ; 
and lastly, though not essential to the question, it implies, that a few 
money hunters, with their tiny shovels, have pared away for two miles 
the entire banks of this river, so as to admit from eight to twelve feet 
of water, with which, twice a day, they are at present covered. The 
tide is not, as the reader of Mr. Winthrop might imagine, merely let 
into a pool or cove surrounding the rock, but is let in upon the whole 
of Asonet neck. If ever the writing-rock stood upon dry land, it is 
nature alone, that has made the alteration. 
In affording entertainment to the hypothesis, that the writing-rock 
may have been the work of Indians, Ihave been led into the enumic- 
tation of other works, appearing to possess some similitude, and scat- 
