By William Long, Esq. Ill 



levers, shove it along, levelling and smoothing the uneven ground 

 before them as best they could, and placing relays of rollers continu- 

 ally in advance. By this means, after much toil and time, they 

 would land their stone at its destination. 



Let us suppose, however, that in the intercourse with eastern 

 people, trading for tin or otherwise, the builders of Stonehenge had 

 become acquainted with tlie use of bronze and of the rope, they would 

 then have been at a greater advantage. Perhaps the bronze im- 

 plements might not be able to do much moi'e for them than the flint, 

 but the rope would be an immense assistance, in enabling them to 

 bring so much draught-power of men to their aid, and possibly of 

 beasts, if the bos longifrons and the horse, (whose remains are found 

 in the barrows,) were to be found in sufficient numbers on the downs 

 and their neighboiu-hood. 



At Rome, when the writer was there in the mnter of 1865-6, 

 it was amusing to see the primitive manner in which the large 

 blocks of Carrara marble were transported from the Tiber to the 

 artists^ studios. Sir George Head, in his "Tour of many days 

 in Rome," vol. ii., p. 397, thus describes the slow and clumsy 

 operation : " A sledge of sufficient size and strength having 

 been constructed for the purpose, consisting simply of a low frame- 

 work of stout timber, connected by transverse pieces and suppox-ted 

 on wooden runners, such as are used for the transport of heavy mer- 

 chandise over the snow in the roads of North America, the block 

 of marble, divested previously of all its unnecessary bulk, was laid 

 upon it, which preliminary part of the operation, however, I did not 

 see performed. But the manner of putting the sledge in motion, 

 which I did see, was as follows : in the first place, at the distance of 

 sixty or seventy yards in front of the object a hole was made in the 

 ground, and an iron crowbar not less than twelve inches in circum- 

 ference, inserted in the hole as a point to haul upon, including a 

 massive triangular frame to support a capstan lashed close to the 

 crowbar. A block and pulley having been fixed to the sledge, and 

 another block and pulley to the frame of the capstan, the rope was 

 in the the first instance made fast to the sledge, and finally once 

 more carried forward and rove with a double tvu*n round the shaft 



