DIGHTON ROCK, a boulder of *green stone" (in fact, bluish-gray), in Berkley, Bristol County, Mass., opposite Dighton, the landing place for it; on the east shore of the Taunton River, about 10 feet from low-water mark, and covered two or three feet deep at each flood tide. It is feet long and about five feet high, with a flat face toward the river, once covered with inscribed characters varying from scratches to one-third of an inch deep, not chiseled, but in. For many years the stream of visitors, unchecked by any authority, so often scrubbed off the tidal deposits of dirt with brooms and water to see the characters more plainly, that most of the latter are effaced and the whole past effective study. From old draw ings, however, and comparison with similar petroglyphs elsewhere, there is no doubt it is Indian; Schoolcraft says, in the symbolic char acter of the Kekeewin. (Consult Garrick Mal
lery in annual report of the Bureau of Ethnol ogy, 1888-89, pp. 85-86, 762-764; from Dr. Hoff man's examination of 1886). Enthusiasts at various times have made wonderful interpreta lions of it. Rafn of Copenhagen found the name of Thorfinn on the drawing sent him (con sult his correspondence with the Rhode Island Historical Society 1830-34, in (Antiquitates Americana:, Copenhagen, 1837), and thought it a record of the Vinland settlement; an Oriental ist deciphered *meld& (king), and considered it Phoenician, and another believed it Scythian. Many drawings have been made of it since the first by Samuel Danforth in 1680, and a second by Cotton Mather in 1712; for which, and a picture of the rock in situ, see Rafn as above, and for the drawings, the report above cited.