SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI L No. 283, 



" I saw dates on the part exposed from 1800 to the current year, 

 the number of last year being much the greatest over the favorable 

 surfaces for marking ; and, when these were found, the double or 

 treble use in some instances was noticed. 



" After having actually gotten on to the rocks, and discovered 

 what they were and how to distinguish and copy them, it appeared, 

 that with the exception of a very few characters recently dug or 

 chipped out by lumbermen or visitors, almost always initials, the 

 only interesting or ancient portions were scratchings, which could 

 be made by any sharp instrument on soft and polished slate. The 

 rocks were great drawing-slates, affording a temptation to any idly 

 disposed person to scratch. Happening to have with me an Indian 

 stone arrow which had been picked up in the neighborhood, I used 

 that upon the surface, and it would make as good scratches as any 

 upon the rocks, except the very latest, which were evidently cut 

 with metal knives by the whites. The time in which I was actually 

 at work in taking copies was very short, only parts of two days ; 

 and then a violent storm arose, which continued for several days, 

 during which time it was impossible not only to see the faint 

 scratchings which were of interest, but even to move over the rocks, 

 as they were rendered as slippery as glass by the moisture ; and 

 then I was forced to leave for Washington. 



" The mode in which I took the copies was by running over and 

 through their outlines with a blue aniline pencil, and then pressing 

 a wetted sheet of linen or paper upon them, so that the impression 

 was taken as by print. Purposely, in order to experiment upon a 

 successful mode of getting the copies, I made my first work upon 

 those that were of least apparent interest, experiiiie7itum in corf ore 

 -uili, so that I should not by my operations spoil those which were 

 of more importance. The main object which I had in the examina- 

 tion of the inscriptions was to ascertain whether there were upon 

 these rocks any of the more simple and more probably aboriginal 

 characters that are found in the hieroglyphs of Kauder. In the 

 short time that I was at work I discovered certainly two of the 

 characters what were in I'Cauder's work. Both of these are similar 

 to, but not identical with, symbols of the Roman Catholic Church. 



" It still remains undetermined whether those particular charac- 

 ters were imitated by Indians during the last two hundred years 

 from religious symbols collected by Kauder, or whether those re- 

 ligious symbols had been adapted from some characters which 

 had previously been in use. A more extensive examination and 

 study of the characters on the rocks, of which probably there 

 are thousands that I did not copy, or indeed carefully examine, 

 would be necessaiy before it could be determined to verify my hy- 

 pothesis that the scratching of symbols on these rocks would be ex- 

 planatory of the Micmac printed hieroglyphs. 



" On one point the peculiar multiplication of the characters af- 

 fords an index to antiquity beyond what is generally possible. The 

 existence of two or three different sets of markings, all visible, and 

 of different degrees of distinctness, is in itself important ; but, in 

 addition to that, it is frequently the case that the second and third 

 in the order of time have associated with them dates, from which 

 the relative antiquit)' of the faintest and dateless can be to some 

 extent estimated. The third and most recent class of dates are 

 English names, and are associated with the forms of English let- 

 ters ; the second class are French names, and in some cases have 

 French designs. 



" There is an interesting story on this subject which was com- 

 municated to me from Louis Labrador, whose great-grandfather, 

 old Ledore, according to his account, piloted a body of French 

 Acadians, who, at the time of the expulsion in 1756, were not 

 shipped off with the majority. They escaped the English, and 

 travelled from the valley of Annapolis to Shelbourne, at the extreme 

 south-east of the peninsula, and were on their way from IVIay to 

 October. During that passage they halted for a considerable time 

 to recruit in this beautiful valley along the Kejimkoojik Lake, the 

 very spot where these markings appear, and which was on the an- 

 cient Indian trail. It is exceedingly probable that the French would 

 have been attracted to scratch on these fascinating smooth slate 

 surfaces whether or not they had observed previous markings, but 

 it seems evident that they did scratch over such previous mark- 

 ings. Therefore the latter antedated the middle of the eighteenth 

 century. 



" One of the printed impressions taken in the manner before 

 mentioned is of a bat between an armed brig and troops or Indians, 

 on land, which might have been one of the several naval expedi- 

 tions against the Acadians ; as, for instance; that of Argall in 1614, 

 or Cromwell's of 1654, and which was etched as of historical inter- 

 est by the French wanderers at the time mentioned. The rig 

 of the vessel has not been used for at least a century, and the 

 'top' where men are shooting at those on shore reminds of the 

 old sea-fights under the Stuarts. The artist has drawn his brig 

 down to the keel without reference to the displacement of water or 

 to perspective, and afterwards superposed the shore-line and its de- 

 fenders. 



" The other impressions, copied on linen, and presented to show 

 the character of the work on the rocks, but by no means its intrin- 

 sic value, are a peculiarly drawn star appearing many times in 

 Kauder's book, though five-pointed instead of seven, — a dragon- 

 fly with some fainter characters. A grotesque group — probably a 

 French caricature — is two eels, and two birds perhaps intended 

 for herons. 



" Other impressions taken by me on paper, and mounted on card- 

 board, show a small star of the same character as before given, but 

 five-pointed, some faint designs resembling those of Kauder but 

 not identical, an animal supposed to be a bear, an aboriginal head 

 and bust, a very artistic moose, and a cluster of three trees differ- 

 entiated at their roots, and conjectured, by comparison with a Pas- 

 samaquoddy inscription, to signify the first, second, and third chiefs 

 of the tribe. 



" In connection with the scratchings on the soft and polished 

 surface of the rock, which seems to invite them, the thought occurs 

 that the art of picturing, and subsequently of writing, is in all parts 

 of the world determined by the ready and convenient material ; as, 

 for instance, the papyrus of the Egyptian, and parchments in other 

 parts of the ancient world ; the hides of deer or buffalo among the 

 hunting tribes of this country. But the most tempting and con- 

 venient of all material appears to have been the birch-bark, which 

 is found generally through the whole of the northern Algonkin 

 region. This can be used in two entirely distinct modes, — one 

 in which outlines ai"e drawn by any hard-pointed substance on the 

 inner side of the bark when it is soft, and which remains indelibly 

 when dry ; the other made by scraping on the rougher outer sur- 

 face, thus producing a difference in color." 



The New Naval Observatory. 



The contract for the erection of the new Naval Observatory 

 buildings, on Georgetown Heights, near Washington, has been 

 awarded by the secretary of the navy for $307,811. This contract 

 does not cover the piers or the domes, which are to be built by ex- 

 perts under the direct supervision of the observatory officers. There 

 are to be nine buildings in all, including the main building ; the 

 great equatorial building, where the great telescope will be mount- 

 ed ; the clock-room, where the observatory clock will be set up 

 and the naval chronometers kept and corrected ; two buildings for 

 observers' rooms ; the east and west transit buildings ; and a boiler- 

 house. The material used will be Tuckahoe marble. Work is to 

 be begun immediately, and the buildings are to be completed with- 

 in eighteen months. 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 

 Electric Launches. 



Mr. Reckenzaun, of the Electric Accumulator Company, has 

 fitted up a small launch, to be run by an electro-motor supplied 

 with electricity from secondary batteries. The launch has no fea- 

 tures of especial novelty, excepting the fact that it is the first boat 

 propelled by stored electricity that has been used in this country. 

 A full charge of the battery will take her about eighty miles ; and 

 she can be more easily controlled than an ordinary launch, besides 

 being noiseless, and free from heat and dirt. In speed, weight, and 

 the distance she can go, she compares favorably with steam- 

 launches of the same size, while in point of comfort she would far 

 surpass them. There is a field for these boats at present on men- 

 of-war for general use, or for torpedo-boats, for which last purpose 

 their noiselessness makes them especially valuable. They could 



