394 DARTMOOR AND THE DART. 



self, rushing up the hill with his flaming brand, and 

 hurriedly lighting the pile. Then I see the fire lick 

 up the heap of crisp and sun-dried leaves, catch the 

 faggots of furze, and, overpowering the cloud of blind- 

 ing smoke, burst forth into a grand pyramid of flame, 

 whose leaping and curling tongues rustle the scorched 

 air, and roar like a tempest, while the red glare falls 

 on the lone waste around. Then in an instant the 

 attendant, gazing wistfully into the darkness, sees the 

 answering fire blaze out on the summit of Kippon 

 Tor, and presently, it may be, another spark, just dis- 

 cernible, tells that a more distant beacon has caught 

 the signal, and sent it on ; and he knows that before 

 he can descend the slope and reach his lone hut, the 

 whole of the wide moor will be studded with points 

 of flame, and all the dwellers in the wilderness will 

 have received the communicated intelligence. 



Perhaps the ordinary occasion on which these 

 signal fires were lighted may have been the approach 

 of the Tyrian galley coming to trade for tin. The 

 estuary of the Tamar has been shown on almost irre- 

 sistible evidence to be the ancient Iktis, the port 

 whence the Phoenician tin trade was carried on. 

 Thither the accumulations ot " silver, iron, tin, and 

 lead/' (Ezek. xxvii. 12,) which the mines of this rich 

 metalliferous region* were yielding to the labour of a 

 not unskilled and uneducated population, were brought 

 for sale and barter ; and thence the purple and fine 

 linen of Tyre, the elegant manufactures of the Sido- 



* See Appendix; infra. 



