11 



On Hand-bricks, from the Island of Herm, 

 By W. V. GUISE, ESQ., F.G.S. 



In the course of a ramble amoogst the Channel Islands, last 

 summer, iny attention was attracted by the unusual abundance of 

 those " cairns" of stones, known by the name of" Cromlech*" 

 which, in the little Islet of Herm, in particular, meet the eye 

 everywhere, in the vallies as well as upon the eminences, and 

 which, to the least poetical observer, lead the mind back to periods 

 of dim and remote antiquity, when it might well seem that the 

 vast Cyclopean masses around were 



" Rear'd by the hands of giants, 



In god-like days of old." 



The exploring pick of the patient antiquary, however, speedily 

 dispels these imaginings, and dreams of white-robed priests, and 

 altars streaming with the blood of human victims, vanish before 

 the cold realities of Truth, and the supposed temple, or altar, 

 turns out, in every case which has been satisfactorily investigated, 

 to be a place of burial, a vault or catacomb, which has, in most 

 instances, been not merely the sepulchral chamber of an indivi- 

 dual, but has been evidently used for the purpose of interment of 

 many successive generations. 



A vast proportion of those now visible (for many have been 

 destroyed and all vestiges of them removed during the last 

 century) have been explored by that able and indefatigable anti- 

 quary, Mr. C. F. Lukis, of Guernsey, whose papers, scattered 

 through the earlier volumes of the Archaeological Journal, have 

 thrown so much light upon this obscure subject. In his Museum 

 I first observed the baked clay clumps, or " Hand-bricks," as he 

 calls them, which I have the pleasure of laying upon the table this 

 evening ; and during a short visit afterwards to the Islands of 

 Herm I had an opportunity of investigating an almost inexhaus- 

 tible hoard of the same singular objects, stored up in a manner 

 and to an extent which would appear to defy the ingenuity of the 

 moat speculative mind to account for. 



The site of this deposit in the Islands of Herm, is a sea-cliff of 

 sand, about 40 feet in height, resting upon solid rock, the spurs 

 of which projecting below, prevent the encroachments of the sea. 

 The sole outward indication of the buried hoard is to be found in 

 the appearance upon the surface of the cliff of extraordinary 

 quantities of limpet shells, scattered in profusion over the sand, 

 and which, taking their presence as a standard of measurement, 

 would seem to manifest an extension of the deposit to the distance 

 of nearly a quarter of a mile. It was the presence of these shells 

 in such unusual abundance which first drew the attention to the 

 spot of an intelligent fisherman, who had been employed by Mr. 

 Lukis, in assisting him in his researches, who, connecting these 

 shells with those found in such remarkable profusion in the 



