and was examined by a number of persons possessing respectable scientific attainments. As far as I am aware, however, neither its visible characteristics, nor its history, or its historical associations have ever been carefully studied by any conversant with American archæology. This carved stone was found at the point marked a in the accompanying map. For myself, while undertaking to comment upon this interesting memento of a past age, I must at the outset acknowledge my want of qualifications for the purpose, and explain that my object is rather to suggest than to dogmatize, and to give such small assistance to the learned as is comprised in scraps of information which I have been able to obtain from various sources.
A tolerable knowledge of the history of Charlotte County and of the province, and an imperfect memory and record of the contents of several letters received from various persons upon the principal subject, are all of some service in furthering my purpose. The letters which were written to assisting in preparing a paper upon the stone, subsequently read before the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, an association not now in existence, were unfortunately destroyed in the great fire of St. John. The paper itself was preserved, and embodies at least a portion of the contents of the letter. Opinion, at the time of discovery, was somewhat divided, both in regard to the nationality of the workman by whom the stone was carved and also in respect to the object of the work. Three suggestions, one of which is probably correct, were offered by different parties with reference to the workmen: First, that he was a British colonist; secondly, that he was a Frenchman, and, thirdly, that he was an Indian. The discussion of these several propositions naturally suggests, if it does not necessarily involve, in each case a consideration of the motives of the workman, I have little hesitation in dismissing, as highly improbable, the hypothesis that the artist was a British colonist. The appearance and position of the stone when discovered; to which I shall presently
