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On Hand-bricks, from the Island of Herm, 
By W. V. Guisz, Esa., F.G.S. 
In the course of a ramble amongst the Channel Islands, last 
summer, my attention was attracted by the unusual abundance of 
those “ cairns” of stones, known by the name of “ Cromlechs,” 
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 Archeological 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 
ealls 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 
most 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 
