•if c& IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // // ^A .^ ^, iiP y. ^ 1.0 I.I ^ Jf IIIIIM I -- IIIIIM *- I. ill 1.8 L25 IIILU IIIIII.6 vl .%^K^\^ 7 4V^ s 7 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. 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L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de I'^tablissement prdteur suivant : La bibliothdque des Archives publiques du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul cliche sont film^es & partir de Tangle sup^rieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Le diagramme suivant iliustre la m6thode : 1 2 3 1 6 E^H^B 1 i\ J ^i!::!^y'l^^<,>^LJ^-^ffii!!^ DESCRIPTION OF RUNIC STONES SUPPOSED RUNKJ INSCRIPTION. Found lying face downwards, half buried in the mud on Jeffrey's Point, west side of Yarmouth Harbor Discovered by Mr James F. Jeffrey in 1897 This stone is similar to the Fletcher Stone. Were one mile apart Drawn by R Balfour Brown Copyrighted 1898 by J. Murray Lawson. FOUND NEAR YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA (Reprinted from the Yarmouth Herald, 1898.) •■^PPli mmmmm mmmmmm w ii i 4 J } I ifiiti 'M^'ffiiAi > ,f li^V, ^, REMARKABLE DISCOVERY. Another Runic Stone Found near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. INSCUIMED STONE (With Kt mc Chakac tkhs ) Discovered hy tlie UU' Dr. riiclianl Flctclier bctwun tlm yi-urs LSdit mihI ISIS oh Fletcher's I'cMiit, vve.st Hiilt^ (if Variiuiutli Hiirbour Drawn by II. Balfour Browu. We publish hortiwith prints of the Fletcher stone (so-called), and also of th« more recently discovered inscribed stone situate on the south side of Bay View Park. Mr. K. B'llfour Brown has prepand two letters on the subject which will be found replete with interest, throwing as they do considerable liyht upon the history and condition of these remarkable records. These letters will be published in the next issues of the IIejjali). Antiquarian zoal has boon fur many Ciipyrij^littnl 1S!»S by J. Murray Law.son. years expnnded in etTorts to decipher the liist of lUe two iuscripiions and the latest discovety cannot but add new interest to a moMt poiploxing question. The similarity of thn records is most htiikinfj;, and the fact that the two in- sciibed stones were found so near each o;her (about a milo apart) cannot fail to attract marked attention. Wo republish our remarks of July 23, 1884, on which occasion the Herald published a print of the Fletcher stone: »; . The report of proceedings of the Xumis- matic and Antiiiuari^in Society of Philadel- phia for 1S80, under the date of February r)th, says: — " A letter was read froiu Mr. T. B. Flint, of Yarmouth, N. S., iu reference to the supposed Scandinavian inscription in that vicinity. lie states that on an island near the mouth of the Tusket lliver there are also two very large stones with inscriptions in similar characters. The spot is very difficult of access by land, but not by water, although it is not in any fre- quented route. The special committee aj)- pointed by the Society to investigate into and report upon the siibject was con- tinued." , The stone is at present in the pohsesrtion of Mr. Samuel M. IJyerson, Yarmouth, who has for many years taken great inter- est in the inquiries connected with the stone and its inscription. The following is Mr. i'inllips' report in full. Should any of our readers know of any similar inscriptions, or havo informa- tion which would throw any light on this interesting subject of discussion, we should be pleased to hear from ihem.— Ed, IIkkam). Ou a Supposed Runic Inscription at Yar- mouth, Nova Scotia/ 1!Y HKNKY I'lIlI-IJI'S, Jll.t On the shore of the Bay of Fundy, op- posite the Town of Yarmouth, stands a rock weighing about four hundred pounds, which, about the end of the last century, was discovered by a man named Fletcher. It has been well known for nearly a hun- V*M#^^^a^ J^^^i;^*^^^ I SL^PPO.SEI) Ul'NIC INSt^UIPTION. Found lying face dowiivvuidH, halt buried in the muil on the Iteai-li on Jeffrey's Point, west sitle of Yarmouth fl;ul)i)r. Discovered l)y Mr. James F. Jeffrey in 181)7. This stone ist similar to the Fletcher Stone. Were one mile apart. Drawn by II. Balfour Brown. Copyrighted ISiW by J. Murray Lawson. dred years, and those who dwell in its vicinity liavo always accepted it as a ff^-uuine relic of antiquity, no breath of Huspieion ever having fallen upon it. The glyphs have bepu at various timfs copied and Heut abroad to men of le.irning who have made more or lens attempts at de- ciphering thein, more than one savant see- ing traces of Semitic (»rigin. In 1S7"> a nibbing procured from the Htoiie was phiced in my hinds for iuvestiLratioa. Since that time I have carefidly considered the ciicurabtauces of the c ise and have be- come ultimately satislied of its boua-lide nature, that tlie inscription is ntdth(:^r a modern fraud nor the work of tlie way- ward playfi'hiess of the leisure hours o.' tlie sportive r*dskin. Having become im- bued with a belief that no deception was intended or p'sicnsed, 1 entered upon the study of llie markings wjtli a mind totally and entirely free from prejudice. So far from believing that the ii}scri}>tion was a relic of the i»re (-olumbian discovery of Ameiica, I havn never given any credence to that theory, I thenfoie approached the subject entirely unbiiised in my opinion, in fact, some^vhat prejudiced against the authenticity of any iuscripti(m on tiiis continent, purporting to emanate from the hardy and intrepid Norsemen. The diflicuity of interpreting iht.se mark- ings was greatly increased on account of the nature of the material on which the rubbing had been taken an 1 the f ict that in the Kuuic alphabets the letters freciuent- )y have raauy varying va'nes and forms. l.ut like a kaleidoscope, word after word appeared in disjointed fi>rms, and each W.I8 in turn rejected until at List an in- telligible wold came forth, followed by an- other and another, until a real s(iitcnre with a meaning stood f artb cO my astonish- ed gaze: — " IlAKKlsSKX MICN VAIiU " — " IIAUKO's son ADHUKSSKI) tiik mkn." Upon examining further, I found that in the expedition) of Thorlinn Karlfsefne, in lOUT, the name of Ilarki occurs among those who accompanied him. 1 confess that 1 was staggered by the remar'^able coincidence and began to waver, and the (inishing touches were placed to my un- belief when I observed the map and saw liow sljort the distance was from Iceland to tireenlind, compared with the stretch of wiiter from Norway to Iceland, It seemed more than probable that the fear- less race that actually did cross the latter expanse of ocean were not likely to bo de- terred from navigating the former. As to the reason why such a memento should be left of the visit, of course no definite answer can be given, but it is a fact well known that memorials were often made or erected, engraved or placed at localities where events had taken place, and the ad- dress of the chieftain to the men may h ive been of some noteworthy matter, per haps even to commemorate the fact of having landed at that spot. In conclusion, I would say that the circumstances are worthy of consideration, if not absolutely convincing. •The S(iueeze of the inscription was made by T. B. Flint. Ksq., of Yanuoiill'., X. S., and photo- j;raphe(l iiy Mr. K. \i. Harden, of IMiiladelphia. tMr. Phillips is Corresjjondlnjj Secretary of the Nnnii.suKitii: and Antuiuarian Society of I'liiladel plua. • On this voyaf^e " they came to a place wliere a firth penetrated far into the conntry. Oil tlie month of it was an island past whicli there ran stroi)}; currents, wl)ich was also tlie ca.«o farther up the lirtli."— A.nti(i Anieri(!aii;i', p. xxxi., Hafniii', 1837. The New Runic Stone. EOltor Yarr.iouth Herald: Dear Sih, -I was told about a year ago that a stone, with characters cut on it similar to those od the Fletcher stone, had been found near Bay View Park. Sup- posing it to be an advertising dodge for the benefit of the lessee of the park I did not go to see it at that time. On the first of the month, however, I happened to be on the grounds of the park and thought I would take a look at this new find. Imagine ray astonishment when on seeing it for the first time there appear- ed the same mysterious glyphs of the same well known forms with which I had been familiar all my lifetime on the now cele- brated Fletcher stone. In the present case, however, three more had been added to the inscription. Two of these had their counterpart on the Fletchor stone, while one was new. The three last glyphs were in a line below the others which stretched across the whole face of the stone tablet. Roughly measured with a tapa line, I found the contents to be about three cubic feet, or say 450 lbs. in weight. The face of the bowlder is as fair and smooth as if dressed by a lapidary, and is colored by age to a dark hue, glyphs and all. The stone must have been selected with great care, and seemed to be a hard, fine-grained hornblendic granite, such as may be seen along the shores of Little River, eight or nine miles from our cape in a southwardly direction. Having made a careful sketch of the stone, which, by the way, has a singularly grotesque resemblance to a human skull in outline, I sought an interview with Mr. James F. Jeffery, the alleged discoverer of it. Mr. Jeffery led me down to the beach just south of his residence, and pointed out the spot near high water mark where it was found, and here, half buried in the salt, sand and debris of the beach, face downwards, bad this interesting relic of a past age lain unnoticed, while the residents of the locality must have walked around and over it a thousand times. This neighborhood had been inhabited for more than a century. Being provided with paper, etc., I wrote down all that Mr. Jeffery knew about his discovery. MU JAMFS F. JEFFERY's STATEMENT. I have lived all my life on tbis farm. Wishing to extend the seawall on the south side of the road leading to Bay View Park, I was engaged last summer in hauling up the bowlders which lined the shore near my house. On turning over the stone with the characters on, I noticed some of the marks which excited my curiosity. After carefully washing off the rock I was satis- fied that this was similar to the one described in the Yarmouth Herald some years ago, and in order to preserve it I had it hauled up to the place where it now lies on Bay View Park hill in front of the stable. Neither I. nor my father, thougb living here for many years, ever heard of this stone until last summer, when I found it as stated. Referring to the above biief narrative of Mr. Jeffery, I may state here that any one who is acquainted with him would never for one moment doubt his veracity, but as there are many persons likely to read this statement who can never be made to be- lieve a self-evident fact without the strong- est proof, I used my prerogative as a magistrate to swear him in due form as to the finding of the stone as related above. Among the hundreds of bowlders (doubt- less brought here by the ice) Mr. Jeffery and I corld find none of a similar com- position to the one under consideration. In comparing this record with the one found by the late Dr. Richard Fletcher on his property in the year 1812, with the one found by Mr. Jeffery last summer, I have some remarks to make which I consider of importance. (^uite fifty years ago 1 made ray first sketch of the Fletcher stone, and noticed then that the glyphs were bridged over in phices by spongy masses or scales of white (luartz, which must have either formed by atomic deposition, or else (what seemed most likely) by the gradual disintegration of the softer rock. It was ray opinion then that no better proof of the antiquity of the inscription could be desired. Scales of quartz raay be seen now all over the upper part of the face of the stone. It will be observed that the inscription is very near the top edge of the stone tablet, as if the sculptor intended to add more to the record at some subsequent period. This rock is what I .should call ametauorphosed sand stone. The first 13 glyphs on the Jetlory stone are identical in form with the 13 glyphs on the Fletcher stone; the others are partly a repetition so that any one having a key to the first 13 could read all but one in the second row on the Jeflery stone. The first few on the latter are cut down to a level, but as you near the end of the sentence they have a stippled appear- ance as if they were done much more hurriedly. These last might be done exactly by means of a round steel marline- spike point, held at an angle of about 4.") degrees, and a mallet. The glyphs are about ^r inch deep and tarnished by age, as is the rock itself. 1 can only account for the polished ap- pearance of the flat surface of the Jefi'ery stone by supposing that float ice had en- veloped and lifted it with the rising tide and moving it back and forth on the sandy bed on which it lay. Jfcflery's Point, where the last stone tablet was found last summer, is just about one mile due south nearly from the Fletcher Point where the other tablet was founl nearly a century ago. Again, it is one LTile farther south to the " Narrows," formed by Bunker's Island and the east cape, at the south extremity of the harbor. There are other inscribed stones known to the writer which have been found in this county, but which will be referred to in a subsequent letter, as I find myself en- croaching too much on your columns. Yours truly, li. Balfouk Br.owN. /A Runic Inscriptions. rOUNI) ON TIIK WKST SIDK OK YAK.MOl Til IIAIMiOK ((Jiitiliinu il ) Several yeurs previous to the fleitli of the late Dr. Juspph Farish, while riding over to the Fletcher farm with me, that gentleman informed me that in 1S24 his father, Dr. H. (r. Farish, took him over (o see the stone, and the e'der gentleman entertained his son, a boy of 15, with an account of the ftl'orts that had been made by himself and Dr. Fletcher (*hohad died some half-dozen years beforf), to have the glyphs deciphered by some anti(|uari)n societies to whom they had sent copies, but without success. Later elTorts also failed, and it was only in 187") that the mysterious writing was made known to the world by Mr. Henry Phillips, jr., corresponding membe?' of the antiquarian society of Philadelphia. I had known Mi. Piiillips for some years, and when he greeted me on board of the old steanr .. uinda, with the assurance that he had " come to study and procure copies of the Fletcher stone," I was not surprised, knowing him to be a line scholar and enthusiastic antiquarian. He was fortunate enough to fill into the hands of our courteous and obliging representative, Mr. T. B. Flint, who secured for him several copies of the inscription. Mr. Phillips' interpretation and subse- quent report to the society, of which he was a member, published in the Yahmoutii IIeuam) in 1884, was of such interest to the reading public, that I shall take the liberty of asking a republication of it in its entirety as follows: " On the shore of the Bay of Fundy, (this is an error, the stone was found on the west side of the hmbor, and not on the Atlantic shore, which is separated from tlie harbor by a long stiip nf land about half a iiii'e iu widtli) <)|ipuhi'e tliu (own (if Yarrnn'.iili, a lock, weigliing ah >ut lour hundred poundn, wliicli, about tliHend of the last century was dihcoveied by a uian nanit'fl Fle'cher. " It has ht-en well known for nearly orio hundred years, and thohe who dwell in its vicinity iiavw always accepted it us a geiiiiiiiH relic of amiciuity, uo breath of MiHpioion ever having tiilleti upon it. The glyphs thereon have been at various times copied end sent abroad to men ot learning, who h iv« made more or less attempts at decipherititr them, more than one savant seeing tr.ices of .Semitic oiigin. " In 187") a rubhintr, procured from this stone, was placed in niy iiamts for investi- gation. .Since that time I have carelully consideied the circumstaiices of the case, and have become uliiinalely sati^Hed of its bona li(ie niture: tliat the luscripiion was neither a common hand n(»r the v.oik of the wayward playfulness of the leisure h')urs of the sportive redskin. "Having been imbued wiili the belief that no dereption was intended or prac- ticed, I entered upon the study of the markiiigH witii a mind totally and entirely free from j»rejiidice. So far ttoin believing that the iiisciiptiim was a relic *>f the pre- Columbi'tn discovery of Americ;*, I liad never given any credence to that theory. I therefore approached the subjt-ct entirely unbiased in my opiniou, iu facr, somewhac prejudiced against the authenticity of any inscription on this continent purporting to emanate from the hardy and intrepid Norse- men. " The dilHculty of interpreting these markings was jjieally increased on account of the nature of the raateiial in which the rubbing had been taken, and the fact that in the lluuic alphabets the letters fre- quently have many varying values and forms. But, like a kaleidoscope, word after word appeared in disjointed forms, and each was in turn repeated, until at last an intelligible word came forth, followed by another and another, until a real sentence with a meaning stO(»d forth to my astonish- ed gaz": ' llarkussen men varu' (* [Taka's son addressed the men.') " Upon examining further. I found in the expedition of Thorliun Karlsetne. in 1007, the name of Ilaki occurring ar^ong those who accompanied him. On this <' voyiifjH tlipy cime to a jtlace where a fritli pi'iHitiiitMil fiir into the country. Oil" tlie iiiDiiih of it wits Hn iHhin h memenro should he left (»f the visit :ouri01 the Icelanders touched upon 'he American coast, and for nearly two centuries subsequent visits were repeat- edly made by them and the Norwegians. Biorn Ileriolson, an Icelander, was the fust discoverer. Steering for Greenland he vi'as driven to the south by tempestuous and unfavorable winds, and saw different parts of America, without, however, touch- ing at any of them. Attracted by the re- port of this voyage, Leif, sou of Eric, the discoverer of Greenland, lltted out a vessel to pursue the same adventure. lie passed the coast visited by Biorn, and steered southwest till he reached a strait between a large island and the mainland. Finding the country fertile and pleasant he passed the winter near this place, and gave it the name of Vinland, from the wild vine grow- ing there in great abundance. According to ll