| sea service seem to be caused by the fact that the prospects | | for success in life in other directions are sufficiently good | | to prevent them from seeking an employment in which they would | | be subject to discipline and have to sacrifice their habits of | | independence. It will probably be found expedient, ultimately, to | | adopt a system of entry and training for seamen similar to that | | which has been found to succeed in England. The systems followed | | on the European continent, and which are based upon conscription, | | could find no place amongst a people with whom all service must be | | essentially voluntary. | | | | If the difficulties with regard to men can be overcome, the naval | | strength of the United States may be as great as Congress may | | deem desirable, for, with respect to the capacities of harbours | | and dockyards and the means available for the construction and | | armaments of ships, there is practically no limit to the power of | | fitting out and maintaining large fleets. | | | | [9] In the summer of 1870 I went to the village of Dighton to look | | at the inscribed stone in the river near that place. | | | | Upon my arrival there it was high water and the rock was covered. | | The next day, when the tide was low, I hired a boat, pulled down | | the stream and stopped by its side, which was then fully exposed, | | and examined it with care. It was a boulder formed of hard close | | grained granite. | | | | As the inscription was originally supposed by Danish and other | | antiquarians to have had some relation with the history of the | | arrival of the Northmen upon that coast, I traced the figures and | | rude characters with particular attention. | | | | I have seen rolls of birch bark scratched in the same manner by | | Chippewas, for the purpose of giving information of the movements | | of their hunting parties, and I think that the figures on the | | Dighton stone were meant to represent similar events. As, however, | | the inscriptions are deeply cut, and as it must have taken some | | considerable time to execute them, it may be granted that the | | Indians wished to leave, near the mouth of the river, a permanent | | record which would be intelligible to others. | | |