hardly a word about the few savages who still inhabit it, but gives an imperfect geological and geographical sketch of the country, in which we do not find a single fact of novelty and interest. It is such an article as might be lazily penned, as a contribution to a newspaper, by one who had paid a two days' visit to the region described. It seems to have been introduced for no other purpose than that of bringing in a few other desultory observations made by Mr. Schoolcraft, over twenty years ago, in the course of his memorable journey to Itasca Lake.

The famed inscription on Dighton rock, the discovery of what was pompously but incorrectly termed a "Skeleton in Armor" near Fall River in Massachusetts, and the more recent discovery of a few other Indian skeletons, with some copper implements near them, in the same locality, have already been so thoroughly discussed that we did not expect Mr. Schoolcraft to tell us any thing new about them; and this expectation has not been disappointed. Elaborate notices are given of them, however, and the author comes to what we consider the right conclusion, " that the skeletons at Fall River were those of Indians who may possibly have lived during the time of Philip's wars, or a few years earlier, but that they are only those of Indians." This conclusion is founded upon the very satisfactory reasons, that "the state of preservation of the flesh and bones proves that they could not have been of very ancient date," that the crania show "the conical formation of the skull peculiar to the Indian," "and lastly, the use of copper for arrow heads among the Indians at the arrival of the Puritans is well authenticated." The pieces found were "apparently mere sheet copper, rudely cut into simple forms," and were quite unfit for defensive armor. The author does not mend his argument much, however, when he adds the important information that "both Rome and Phonicia were well acquainted with the elaborate working of iron and brass."

A detailed account is given of a visit made to Dighton rock, in 1847, by Mr. Schoolcraft, as one of a committee, appointed by the New York Historical Society, to examine the inscription. But the account adds nothing to our previous

information upon the subject, if we except the important facts that the author rode from Fall River to Dighton Four Corners, a distance of ten miles, "in an open one-horse buggy, which afforded a pleasant view of the state of New England cultivation and thrift on a rather indifferent soil;" and that he "crossed the river to the rock in a skiff rowed by an interesting lad, called Whitmarsh, who was not the less so for a lisp." This boy had shown some acuteness and a disposi tion to facilitate the observations to be made by the visitors, by crossing the river at an earlier hour in the morning, and marking in chalk the outlines of the principal figures in the inscription, so that they stood out very conspicuously when Mr. Schoolcraft approached. A fresh copy of the inscription is here furnished in an engraving founded in part upon the copies previously taken, and in part upon our author's own observations. An inspection of it makes the interpretation given by the Copenhagen antiquaries appear more doubtful than ever. That part of the inscription upon which they chiefly relied-a very small portion of the whole-is here presented with some material variations. Yet our author adheres to the very improbable hypothesis, that there are "two diverse and wholly distinct characters employed, namely, an Algonquin and an Icelandic inscription." That portion which is admitted to be pictographic and Indian in its origin is so rudely done and faintly incised, presenting awkward scrawls, any one of which, like Polonius's cloud, may be easily held to be a camel, a weasel, or "very like a whale," the action of the atmosphere and the tide water having also effaced in a great degree what little vraisemblance it may have once possessed, that detached portions of it may now seem meaninglessor alphabetic, which amounts to the same thing; and these portions may naturally seem Runic to an imaginative northern antiquary, or Sanscrit to an Oriental

A little group, in the lower central part of the inscription, of these unmeaning and half-effaced scrawls, which can be construed, at most, into half a dozen alphabetic characters, is a very narrow basis to erect a theory upon. The present age has seen marvels accomplished in the art of deciphering; witness the labors of Mr. Layard, Col. Rawlinson, and Dr.

Hinckes at Nineveh and Behistun. But really the laborers upon the Dighton rock ought to remember that an inscription cannot be deciphered, even by the greatest learning and skill, if it be not certain that an alphabetic inscription exists.

Mr. Schoolcraft has unwittingly furnished evidence, in this very work, that his hypothesis of the alphabetic character of a part of the Dighton inscription is untenable. He has furnished engraved copies of several other rude inscriptions upon rock, unquestionably of Indian origin, which have been found at different places in the interior of the country. These are certainly pictographic, being such rude outlines of familiar objects as a child three years old will scrawl upon a slate. One of them, quite perfectly preserved, has been recently discovered upon a rock on the south side of Cunningham's Island, Lake Erie. It is larger and more distinct than the Dighton inscription, for most of the objects which it was intended to delineate can be clearly made out; but is not a whit more artistic. Mr. Schoolcraft justly gives it a recent date, as he thinks that figures intended to represent Europeans can be detected in it. Had it been exposed a century longer to atmospheric influences, and also to abrasion and accretion from the ebb and flow of a tide, the indistinct remains of it would have formed a very faithful counterpart to the Dighton inscription. As it is, our author rightly observes that "its leading symbols are readily interpreted." But the following account of them is rather magniloquent and imaginative. "The human figures, pipes, smoking groups, the presents and other figures, denote bribes, negotiations, crimes, turmoils, which tell a story of thrilling interest, in which the whiteman or European plays a part." Another of these rude scrawls on rock is copied in an elaborate engraving from a spot near Esopus Landing, on Hudson River. It is unquestionably Indian, and must have been made at a time subsequent to the landing of the whites. It represents a single human figure, wearing two feathers, and holding a gun. A white, though a schoolboy, would not have had patience enough to carve such a figure in so stubborn a material.

When Mr. Schoolcraft was at Mackinaw, he showed an engraved copy of the Dighton inscription to an Indian of that

neighborhood whom he had observed to have a taste for drawing signs and figures, and who was reputed to be an expert in interpreting Indian pictography, and requested him to decipher it to the best of his ability. The savage readily complied, and furnished an interpretation which we must consider as far more probable than that of the Copenhagen antiquaries. Taking it piecemeal, he explained each portion either as a rude semblance or arbitrary symbol of some object or event familiar to the red men. He made no attempt to connect these together as parts of one legend, though he affected to consider the whole as the memorial of a contest between two hostile tribes. Among the objects or figures which he identified were those of a pipe, a dart, a chief and his sister, a sweating lodge, a war-club, symbols of the sun and moon, and many others. We commend this interpretation, made by the Algonquin priest, Chingwauk, to the serious attention of all learned European antiquaries, who are prone to find Runic inscriptions in the rude scrawls of savages, and to add a new chapter to the history of the world upon the strength of them.

Children and savages are equally fond of gaudy pictures. It is this taste, in its lowest stage, which leads the latter to paint their bodies and faces so hideously when they go out to war, or upon any other grand occasion. Advanced one step farther in the cultivation of the art, if art it can be called, they draw rude outlines of familiar objects, sometimes on the rock, as in the cases we have just examined, and sometimes on skins, the bark of trees, or the trees themselves; and these. they smear with the same bright pigments which they use to disfigure their faces. At times, when a particular animal is taken as the symbol or totem of a tribe, these representations come to have a symbolic character. In a similar manner, a hatchet comes to signify war, and the calumet is the token of peace. With a few of the tribe, especially with the priests, these figures may be applied, to a small extent, to mnemonic uses, or, when used for the purposes of a message, may darkly indicate a menace which the sender is unwilling to pronounce distinctly. But savages who have made so little progress as our North American Indians stop here, and sel

dom accomplish even as much as this in their attempts to communicate ideas by other means than speech. Mr. Schoolcraft grossly exaggerates when he claims for "the art" the term of picture-writing; and we think only of "the art" of bookmaking when we find over a hundred pages, and about a score of colored engravings, devoted to a detailed exposition and discussion of this profitless theme. Sheet after sheet, covered with sprawling outlines of man, bird, and beast, smeared with bright yellow or dirty red, add nothing to our knowledge of Indian character or Indian history. Engraved copies of Egyptian hieroglyphics and specimens of Mexican picture-writing, introduced ostensibly for comparison, do not enrich or dignify the barren subject; this whole series of plates, and the letter-press with which they are accompanied, might afford amusement to infants, but certainly could impart no instruction to a child five years old.

Indeed, we are compelled to believe that one of the principal objects in getting up the work was to afford a profitable job to the engravers. There are seventy-six plates in the first volume, and most of them are of such common objects as arrow-heads, axes, tomahawks, beads, amulets, spear-heads, gorgets, pipes, and other articles of Indian manufacture, all of which can be found in the national collection at Washington, and in almost every museum in the country. The same purpose, to patronize the engraver, is still more glaringly exhi bited in the second and third volumes. In all seriousness, we ask, what useful end is answered by multiplying costly line engravings of such fanciful scenes as those of the landing of the Whites in Virginia in 1584, the Interview of Hendrick Hudson with the Indians in 1609, the Interview of Massasoit with the Pilgrims in 1620, the Defeat of Vasquez D'Ayllon by the Chicoreans in 1518, and De Soto with his party at Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1539? If the object had been to illustrate an annual or gift-book, such engravings might seem appropriate, especially if accompanied by some indifferent stanzas in further commemoration of the scene represented in them. But here they have no historic or antiquarian significance or verity. It will not be contended, we suppose, that the costumes either of the Indians or European actors in these