America Before Christopher Columbus.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2835, 29 November 1892, Page 3

America Before Christopher Columbus.

M. Napoleon Ney, who presides over the French Society of Commercial Geography, contends that Columbus did not discover America. He thinks that in prehistoric times Eastern Asia ai tf North America were joinea by a strip of land, since almost entirely submerged. The Orkneys, Shetlands. Iceland, Greenland, etc M were but stepping stonesj as it were, between the Old World and the New. The " Standard's" Paris conespondent sends the following extract from a paper by M. Ney, in which he says :—" I have seen a tomb of masonry discovered in Boston Bay at the end of last century. It contained a skeleton and an iron handle of a sword. The skeleton was that of a man of the white race, and the sword handle was of European make previous to the fifteenth century—that is to a»y, it dated back a century earlier than Christopher Columbus. At the Smithsonian Institute I aaw the facsimile of the curious inscription of Dighton Writing Rock, known since 1860. The inscription, which is written in Runic characters, accompanied with cryptographic signs and drawings, relates to the adventures of the Scandinavians in Vinland. It signifies: ' One hundred and thirty-one men of the North occupied this country with Thornfinn.' But a more important- inscription is that of Arrow Head. I have examined it oh the bank of the Potomac, three kilometres from the Mia of 'hat liver. It marked the tomb of ft Norman chief's wife, killed by an arrow, and, like the other inscription, is graven in the rock in Runic characters. Translated into English, it run: 'Here lies Syasi, tie iair one of Western Iceland, the widow of Koldr, sister of Thorgr, by her father ; aged twenty-five years, Go«l be merciful to her.' In the tomb were found three teeth, a fragment of a large bone which fell to dust, various tc i let articles m bronze, ill formed and full of holes, two fragments of a necklace, and two coins of the Lower Empire. The fact of those Roman coins being in the" possession of a Norman chief is not extraordinary, as the men of the North—Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes-were sought after to recruit ftieginrd of tl}e Emperors of Constantinople,^ ___________

At a meeting of the Canterbury Industrial Association Mr Curlett brought under the notice of the Committee a cricket bat, manufactured by Mr J. Hoole, out of New Zealand willow. The sample sent seemed to be of excellent quality. It was decided to ask MrHoole to allow the bat-to betejted by Mr Caygill, who would report to the Association. "The !'Times" says that influenza h; | again |ji3de:!its appearance in the city aim I sjubjfrbs'of Chrjstchujrch, apd in some of the principal business establishments a large number of the employees are suffering from tlje epidemic In pne establishment sixteen employees failed to put in an appearance on Monday morning,