_Touchstone's Dial_ (Vol. ii., p. 405.; Vol. iii., pp. 52. 107.).--I am
gratified to find that my note on "Touchstone's Dial" has prompted MR.
STEPHENS to send you his valuable communication on these old-fashioned
chronometers. The subjoined extract from _Travels in America in the Year_
1806, by Thomas Ashe, Esq., is interesting, as it shows that "Ring-dials"
were used as common articles of barter in America at the commencement of
the present century:--
"The storekeepers on the Alleghany River from above Pittsburg to New
Orleans are obliged to keep every article which it is possible that the
farmer and manufacturer may want. Each of their shops exhibits a
complete medley: a magazine, where are to be had both a needle and an
anchor, a tin pot and a large copper boiler, a child's whistle and a
piano-forte, a _ring-dial_ and a clock," &c.