218 



EIGHT REV. S. THORNTON, D.D., ON 



encased by, a huge bladder-like form reminding one of a 

 cuttle fisli, but Avith glory round its head, stands an armless 

 and featureless human figure, in shape apparently female, 

 with tassels and head-dress. Protuberances from the 

 bladder-like case bear a mask and a snake's head on two 

 extremities, with tassels here and there. The whole has a 

 hideous and " nightmare " appearance. It is what an Eton 

 boy might listlessly draw on his blotting-paper at an ex- 

 amination, when he could not do the questions. Was this 



figure done by children, — 

 or in some grotesque, wild 

 mood, as a fantastic, un- 

 meaning thing ? 



The next picture is to 

 me very 'piquant indeed. 

 [Fig. 9.] On a hard, 

 smooth-faced cliff, 45 feet 

 high, and about 15 feet 

 above the bank of a creek 

 15 or 20 feet deep — so that 

 access to the bottom of the 

 carving is impossible with- 

 out a ladder — are cut five 

 vertical grooves, about 1^ 

 inches in diameter and 1^ 

 inches deep. On the right 

 are two disjointed grooves. 

 Underneath the five 

 grooves are five round 

 cavities ; between them 

 are cut arrows (the arrow, 

 be it remembered, being 

 unused by the Aborigines), 

 notches, and ten well- 

 executed representations 

 of the Jewish sevcn-hranclu'd 

 caitdlcstick ! Of the problem here presented I offer no solu- 

 tion : but I saw lately what certainly avvoke my s]:)ecial 

 cariosity in connexion with it, viz., that in the hitherto 

 unexplored interior of Vancouver Island, Mr. F. W. Laing, 

 F.R.G.S., had found cut on the face of a giant rock, in the 

 great Central Lake, some strange markings: "five parallel 

 lines resemliling a musical staff," and beside them " a seven- 

 branched Candlestick ! " The Smithsonian Institute is in- 



FIG. 8. 



