61 



two feet or rather more in diameter, lies three or four feet 

 eastward of these three, nearly opposite the southernmost 

 one. All these stones have enough of irregularity to pre- 

 vent rolling, though no long axes can be specially noted 

 in either of them. The different magnitudes are so well 

 accommodated to the gentle slope of the underlying rock 

 that the tops of all come very nearly to one level ; and 

 the whole system approaches the edge of the precipice 

 within some tw^o or three feet. They are all of light gray 

 sienite, much like the ledge. 



Balanced, with the utmost delicacy, on these four sup- 

 porters lies a great block of sienite also, of a shape like 

 half a pear. The under side, very straight and flat, sits 

 truly on the stones below it ; and the whole length of the 

 mass being some fifteen feet, the narrower and thinner 

 end, which points southward, j)rojects fonvardover the 

 edge of the precipice some five 07- six feet. The mean 

 vertical thickness of the block is not far from seven feet, 

 but the irregular convexity of the top makes this thick- 

 ness very variable. The eastern edge is throughout quite 

 thin, comparatively, the western is thick and the centre of 

 gravity is evidently well towards this side. Yet so per- 

 fectly is everything disposed that the stability of the 

 whole seems fully secured, and it would no doubt require 

 a great force to disturb it, or throw it down the steep over 

 which it so daringly reposes. The whole horizontal girth 

 of the great block is forty feet, and a very careful esti- 

 mate made by the Circle places its weight at thirty-six 

 tons. And so playfully does it seem poised upon its 

 pebble-like bases that one can hardly help a first thought, 

 that here has been a piece of huge but idle labor of man 

 — a work like Stonehenge or the Dwarfie Stone of Hoy — 

 and yet such a notion vanishes straightway on a closer 

 examination. There are no vestiges here of any ancient 



