151 



Of the mechanic powers of the age, the best evidence arises from 

 the works that undoubtedly required them, and which yet remain in 

 Ireland, and more especially that Cromlech between Carrick and 

 Waterford, already mentioned, where a mass of the most ponderous 

 rock has not only been raised but supported with geometrical accu- 

 racy, by an application of the doctrine of mechanic pressure truly 

 surprising.* The Cromlech at Bally mascanlan, near Dundalk, speaks 

 a similar appeal ; the very plate of which, in Wright's Louthiana 

 (book 3. pi. 5,) suggests the certainty of some very powerful machi- 

 nery being then known. How else could this people have upraised 

 those immense rocks for the majestic purposes of their religion ? How 

 else contrived to heave "such ponderous blocks of stone from the bowels 

 of the earth, to transport them over hills and valleys, to poise them 

 on a single point, and to make them bow by the slightest impulse.'' 



The Irish annals make mention of Endeus as generous in the dis- 

 tribution of silver, and even allege that gold mines were worked in a 

 part of the country near the present town of Wicklow, (while they 

 particularly attribute the working of them to the Phoenicians. )•!• Here 

 too is history supported by the golden crowns, rings, gorgets, collars, 

 fibulae, clasps, and like ornaments for civil and religious uses, which 

 could not have been made without a knowledge of the art of smelting 

 and refining gold, and have been discovered through the country, and 

 of which the Irish annals make mention. :J: And when Strabo§ and 

 Diodorusll speak of the golden ornaments used by the Druids of Gaul, 



• See Mr. Finigan's paper, Archaeol. vol. 16. p. 264. 



t O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Script, vol. 2. p. 95, n. 2. . ;>'.■ 



j See Annal. Four Masters. O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Script, ps. 24, 31, 32, and 70, &c. 



§ " Xjurixpegoi/rf ts y«g tti^i ftit tok T{«;(;i)X«I5 rr^tTrrcc i^tvTii ' Tt^t at toij Z^x^itirt xai 

 T»({ Kci^yrttf y'^^'* "*' ^aj i^h rui ?<»7rT«{ (fii^wci, xai ^^vrtiratrravi, o< ii a^iuftitTi." — Strabo, 

 Geog. lib. 4. p. 276. 



y.ii «AA« x.xi M ata^if ' tti^i fiii y«j to«j xx^TOVf xai rcvi £j«;^«>«{ ^iX?iia (pogcvyr Triei 5s 



