1 52 Finch on the Celtic Antiquities of America. 



On my arrival in this country, I thought I 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- 

 man 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 is a 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 ieet, and great- 

 est circumference forty feet, it stands elevated in different 

 parts, from two to five feet above the earth, resting its 

 whole weight upon the apices of seven small conical pillars. 

 Six of these, with their bases either utiited or contiguous, 

 spring up like 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 uneven, its whole weight is so nicely adjust- 

 ed upon these seven small points, that no external force 

 yet applied, has been sufiicient 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." 



The 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 = 



