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SOME NOTES ON ARBOR LOW. 107 
lively imagination, and it is astounding that they gained the 
credence which for so long a time pertained tothem. Those who 
have argued that Stonehenge and other circles such as Arbelow 
were astronomical observatories or orreries of the British Druids 
or earlier races, have hitherto failed to produce a single rational 
account of the way in which these stones could be used for such a 
purpose. As Mr. Ferguson says, ‘‘ They have not as yet pointed 
out one single observation that could be made by these circles 
that could not be made as well or better without them.” If we 
were here at the right times we could doubtless see the sun rise 
over some of these stones of Arbelow, and set behind others, but 
our observations would be equally interesting and valuable if the 
stones were altogether sunk below the sward. 
The views, then, with respect to rude stone monuments, that I 
wish very briefly to put before you, are these—and again let me 
refer all interested in this subject to the scholarly, interesting, and 
unanswered work of Mr. Ferguson on this subject— 
I. That they are generally sepulchral, or connected directly 
with the rites of the dead. About three fourths of our English 
stone circles, for example, have yielded sepulchral deposits to the 
explorer, and the remainder are practically unexplored. 
II. ‘That they are not temples in any usual or proper sense of 
the term. The assertions that they are temples are merely built 
on unsupported surmises, and their size, position, open character, 
lack of ornament, and a score of other reasons, all militate against 
such conclusions. 
-III. That they were generally erected by partially civilised 
races after contact with the Romans. 
In October, 1873, I was specially visiting and minutely examin- 
ing that greatest and most famous of Megalithic monuments, 
Carnac, in Brittany. By great good fortune at the time of my 
visit, the authorities of the department were moving back one of 
the finest stones, that measured nearly 12 feet from the ground, 
in order to widen the public roadway. The base was buried some 
6 or 7 feet in the ground. I was the first to descend into the 
hole from whence it was taken. In the closely pressed ground 
