? is a curve inside the symbol

all other preceding symbols are my best approximation for shapes shown inside that symbol.

; is used to separate each symbol
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1. []; V; []; .>; V; [-]; <;

2. []; V; []; .>; V; [-]; <; L; ).L; <; )7; .7;

3. []; V; []; .>; V; [-]; <; ).L; .C;[]; .L; >; ,C; []; .<; ^[-]; ^[-]; .<;

4. []; V; []; .>; V; [-]; <; <; L; >; ^V; L; V; []; )L; ^V; [-]; []; V; ).C; ^[-]; >; )C; ),C; V; <; C; ^V; ^[-]; .>; [-]; <;

5. *>; []; V; []; V; []; ~7; )C; .>; ^[o]; )L; ^V; []; Lo; ^V; )C; )7; V; )C?; L; )L; 7; .>; .^[-]; )L; >; <; :[-], [-]; Lo; .<; ?[- ]; )7; [-]; )C; []; .C; [-]; 7; L; .7; ^V; )o7; >; C; ^V; .C; .<; [-]; []; 7; .C; )L; :7; [-]; )*L; C; ^V; .L; .>; ^[%]; C; 7; L; 7; ):L; )7; ^.V; []; [-]; .L;[-]

No. 1:  My copy of the characters, as I remember seeing them on the envelope which Mrs. Packard had offered to Mr. Steele and afterward thrown into the fire.

Nos. 2, 3 and 4:  The discarded scraps I had taken from the waste-basket in her room.

No. 5:  The lengthy communication in another hand, which Mrs. Packard had found pinned on the baby’s cloak, and at my intercession had handed over to me.

A goodly array, if the latter was a specimen of the same cipher as the first, a fact which its general appearance seemed to establish, notwithstanding the few added complexities observable in it, and one which a remembrance of her extreme agitation on opening it would have settled in my mind, even if these complexities had been greater and the differences even more pronounced than they were.  Lines entirely unsuggestive of meaning to her might have aroused her wonder and possibly her anger, but not her fear; and the emotion which I chiefly observed in her at that moment had been fear.

So! out of these one hundred and fifty characters, many of them mere repetitions, it remained for me to discover a key whereby their meaning might be rendered intelligible.

To begin, then, what peculiarities were first observable in them?

Several.

First:  The symbols followed one after the other without breaks, whether the communication was limited to one word or to many.

Second:  Nos. 2, 3 and 4 started with the identical characters which made up No. 1.

Third:  While certain lines in Nos. 2, 3 and 4 were heavier than others, no such distinction was observable in the characters forming No. 1.

Fourth:  This distinction was even more marked in the longer specimen written by another hand, viz.:  No. 5.

Fifth:  This distinction, which we will call shading, occurred intermittently, sometimes in two consecutive characters, but never in three.

Sixth:  This shading was to be seen now on one limb of the character it apparently emphasized and now on another.

Seventh:  In the three specimens of the seven similar characters commencing Nos. 2, 3 and 4, the exact part shaded was not always the same as for instance, it was the left arm of the second character in No. 2 which showed the heavy line, while the shading was on the right-hand arm of the corresponding character in No. 3.