Additions to the Museum. 29 



and manuscript numbers. Of these some have been transferred to 

 other departments, and others will probably be deposited in the State 

 Library and in the Hall of Military Eecords. 



I 



III. By Deposit. 



By tlie Albany Institute. 

 The 'ToMPEY Stone." 



This stone, which has enlisted much speculation, was found in the 

 town of Pompey, Onondaga county, in 1820 or 1821. In School- 

 craft s Notes on the Iroquois^ a representation is given of " The 

 Antique Stone of Manlius," with the following notice of it. 



"The stone is about fourteen inches by twelve, and eight inches in thickness. It 

 is a hard, oval-shaped boulder, of a gneissoid character, and bears the evidence of 

 attrition common to all the * erratic block group.' By the figure of a serpent climb- 

 ing a tree, a well known passage in the Pentateuch is clearly referred to. By the 

 date, the sixth year of the reign of the Roman pontifi", Leo X, has been thought to 

 be denoted. This appears to be probable, less clearly from the inscriptive phrase, 

 Leo de Lon VI, than from the plain date 1520, being six years after this pontiff took 

 the papal chair." 



The engraving above referred to is as follows: On the center of 

 the stone, rather rudely represented, a tree with a serpent climbing 

 it ; to the left of the tree, the words Leo De, beneath which are the 

 figures YI 1520 ; to the right of the tree the word Lon, in range and 

 probably in continuation of Leo De, — and opposite to the figures, 

 two cross-lines forming a large X ; below the outer foot of the X is a 

 triangular figure with two lines nearly crossing it. 



" The stone was found with the inscription downward, about one-third buried. It 

 was subsequently removed to Manlius village. ***** It remained in this 

 village nearly a year, and was finally deposited in the museum of the Albany 

 Institute." 



" It may be thought that the name De Leon is intended by the words De Lon. 

 The date, YI, would tally exactly with the sixth year after his landing in and dis- 

 covery of Florida in 1512; the Onondaga country being then as much a part of 

 Florida as any other part of the Atlantic and interior coasts. If, by the prefix of 

 Leo or Lion, a compliment to a brave and hardy explorer was designed to have 

 been expressed, it would have well corresponded with the chivalric character of the 

 age." 



In order to afford to the public better facilities for the inspection 

 of this interesting relic, it was deemed proper by the members of the 

 Albany Institute to deposit it in the State Cabinet, the following 

 receipt being taken upon its delivery : 



