ter. In a letter recently published he expresses himself
thus:--

"Many years ago, the precise date I do not now recollect, a
plain-looking countryman called upon me, with a letter from Dr Samuel
L. Mitchell, requesting me to examine and give my opinion upon a certain
paper, marked with various characters, which the doctor confessed he
could not decipher, and which the bearer of the note was very anxious to
have explained. A very brief examination of the paper convinced me that
it was not only a mere hoax, but a very clumsy one. The characters were
arranged in columns, like the Chinese mode of writing, and presented the
most singular medley I ever beheld. Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts of
letters, more or less distorted, either through unskilfulness or from
actual design, were intermingled with sundry delineations of half-moons,
stars, and other natural objects, and the whole ended in a rude
representation of the Mexican zodiac. The conclusion was irresistible,
that some cunning fellow had prepared the paper in question, for the
purpose of imposing upon the countryman who brought it, and I told the
man so, without any hesitation. He then proceeded to give me the
history of the whole affair, which convinced me that he had fallen into
the hands of some sharper, while it left me in great astonishment at his
simplicity."

The professor also states that he gave his opinion in writing to the
man, that "the marks on the paper appeared to be merely an imitation of
various alphabetic characters, and had no meaning at all connected with
them."

The following letter, which I received, relative to the occupation of
Joe Smith, as a treasure-finder, will probably remind the reader of the
character of Dousterswivel, in Walter Scott's tale of the Antiquary.
One could almost imagine that either Walter Scott had borrowed from Joe,
or that Joe had borrowed from the great novelist.

"I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, senior, and his family, in
1820. They lived at that time in Palmyra, about one mile and a half
from my residence. A great part of their time was devoted to digging
for money: especially in the night-time, when, they said, the money
could be most easily obtained. I have heard them tell marvellous tales
respecting the discoveries they have made in their peculiar occupation
of money-digging. They would say, for instance, that in such and such a
place, in such a hill, or a certain man's farm, there were depo