British
Archaeological Association: "In the September number of the _Journal_ (p.
282) we are informed that a slaty spear-head, an arrow-head of bone, and
a sinker stone were found in the debris inside the canoe. 'In the cavity
of a large bone,' says the writer, 'was also got an ornament of a
peculiar stone. The digger unearthed it from the deposit at the bottom
of the canoe, about 14 feet from the bow and near to a circular hole cut
in the bottom about 3.5 inches in diameter.' What a funny place to hide
a precious ornament, for I take this peculiar stone to be that with the
human hand incised on one side and three men rowing in a boat on the
other! (see plate xv. no. 10)."

{ Fig. 24: p136b.jpg}

Here the place of discovery in the canoe is given with precision, and its
place within the cavity of the bone is pronounced by Dr. Munro to be
"funny." As to the three men in a boat, the Rev. Geo. Wilson of
Glenluce, on Feb. 14, 1887, presented to the Scots Antiquaries a bugle-
shaped pendant of black shale or cannel-coal 2.25 inches long, with a
central groove for suspension. On one side of the pendant was incised a
sketch of two figures standing up in a boat or canoe with a high prow.
The pendant is undisputed, the pebble is disputed, and we know nothing
more about the matter (see fig. 25).

{ Fig. 25: p136c.jpg}

XXXIII--DISPUTABLE AND CERTAINLY FORGED OBJECTS

In his judicious remarks to the Society of Antiquaries, (_Proceedings_,
xxxiv.,) Dr. Joseph Anderson observed that opinions would probably vary
as to certain among the disputed objects. Among these are the inscribed
oyster shells. I see nothing _a priori_ improbable in the circumstance
that men who incised certain patterns on schist or shale, should do so on
oyster shells. Palaeolithic man did his usual sporting sketches on
shells, and there was a vast and varied art of designing on shells among
the pre-Columbian natives of North America. {137} We here see the most
primitive scratches developing into full-blown Aztec art.

If the markings were only on such inscribed shells as mouldered away--so
Mr. Bruce tells us--when exposed to light and air, (I do not know whether
the designs were copied before the shells crumbled,) these conchological
drawings would not trouble us. No modern could make the designs on
shells that were hurrying into dust. We have Mr. Bruce's word for these
mouldering shells, and we have the absolute certainty that such
dec