By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.RS., F.G.S8., Fe. 125 
weight ” of the stones at Avebury ‘‘ at above fifty tun”; and some 
were thought to be 70 tons (Dr. Stephen Hale). 
One of the small circular sets is said to have had a stone 21ft. 
high. Wilts Mag., (No. 33, February, 1869,) vol. xi., p, 344 :— 
“ Extracts from a Common-place Book of Dr. Stukeley.” ‘ West of 
Abury is another entrenchment sett with stones, one whereof makes 
the end of a barn.” 
“ My L*. Pembroke says the stones are of 200 Tun weight each 
at Abury. (90 tons would be more nearly correct.—Ep.) ” 
Wilts Mag. (No. xli., March, 1874), vol. xiv., p. 230. From 
Stukeley’s MS. Notes. Rev. Bryan King (Abury). “The bulk 
of the stones tho’ not hewn generally }/ f. square 10 cub. 4 or 5 
thick.” 
At Stonehenge the outer Sarsens mostly stand 12ft. 7in. out of 
the ground, and are about 6ft. broad, and 3ft. 6in. thick (about 
273 cubic feet, and about 17 tons in weight'). The imposts are 
about 10ft. long, 3ft. 6in. broad, and 2ft. 8in. thick. (The “altar- 
stone,” which is not a Sarsen, is 16ft. 2in. long, 3ft. 2in. broad, and 
lft. 9in. thick.) 
In the Wilts Mag., vol. x., the Rev. A. C. Smith, referring to 
the size of the Wiltshire Sarsens, notes that “ the highest stone at 
Stonehenge is computed to measure under 25 feet, whilst the largest 
stone at Avebury is scarcely 20 feet in height, and its weight about 
62 tons”; and this, being thick, is said by Messrs. Cunnington 
and Long? “to be the most massive Sarsen stone in Wiltshire.” 3 
1“ By hill-tribes in India large long stones, 20 tons in weight, are carried up 
hills, 4000 feet high, in a few hours, by a horizontal arrangement of crossed 
bamboos with men in the interstices; and then one end is let down into a hole 
and the stone raised upright in it by hauling up the carrying framework of 
interlaced poles. See also the Rev. A. C. Smith’s paper on “ The Method of 
Moving Colossal Stones.” Wilts Mag., vol. x., 1866, pp. 52-59. A plan of 
investing the stones with parallel timbers, and then rolling them has also been 
alluded to. 
- “Maultorum manibus grande levatur onus.”—(Ovid). The Society’s motto. 
? Wilts Mag., vol. iv., p. 336. ‘ The specific gravity of Sarsen stone is about 
2°500 or 24 times greater than water. The weight per cubic foot is 154 pounds.” 
' 8A large stone stood at Avebury a few years since; its weight was not less 
than 90 tons. Idem, p, 336, 
