One
said, bail out the water--exposure to the air will do no harm. The
other said, leave it thus until some scientific man comes to decide
as to the prospects of destructability. And the latter's advice
was adopted. Yet, when the water was undisturbed and clear, the
whole could be seen perfectly plain. Later in the day Dr. J.F.
Boynton, the geologist, drove out with Mr. John Geenway, the water
was bailed out, and Dr. B. made a thorough inspection of his Giantship,
put his arms under the neck, and fairly hugged the monster. The
general impression is, that it is a petrifaction of one of those large
human beings of which all of us have heard so much in our youthful days,
and have read accounts of in maturer years--not here, but somewhere
else. A book lies before us, having account of several, varying from
eight to eleven feet; but we stop not to extract therefrom. Prof.
Boynton, from a hasty examination, is of opinion that it is a work
of art--a sculpture from stone. If this theory be correct, it would be
scarcely less interesting than if a petrifaction. In the one case
arises the speculation as to a gigantic race of beings that may
have inhabited portions of this "new world" hundreds of years before
Columbus discovered it; the other as to how long ago the artist
did the work, and where came he, or his ancestors, from? Men nigh
on to a hundred years, and who have resided in the county seventy
of them, have never heard allusion to such a thing; the Indian
traditions speak not of it.
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