TELEGRAPH OF THE MOOR. 395 



nians, the gold and precious stones and spices of 

 India, and perhaps even the silks of distant China, 

 were distributed through Britain.* 



The arrival of the periodical galley from Tyre 

 would then be an event which would put in motion 

 the entire mining country; and we may well imagine 

 that a series of signals would be concerted, by which 

 it should instantly be known. These lofty Tors were 

 admirably calculated for such a telegraphic system. 

 Yonder blue mass in the south, Brent Beacon, over- 

 looks Plymouth Sound and its approaches, and the 

 appearance of a sail on the distant seaward horizon 

 would not fail to be noted in fine weather. " What 

 would be done," do ^you ask, " if the galley made the 

 coast in misty or hazy weather ?" I suppose in such 

 case a signal fire would be lighted on the heights 

 around the Sound, as soon as it became clear. 



The flame from Brent would be responded to by 

 Buckland in this direction, and by Sheep Tor in the 

 west ; from the former the news would flash to Kippon, 

 or Hay Tor, and be known then over the whole 

 eastern region ; from the latter it would be caught by 

 Tor Bfoyal, and thence by Crockern Tor, that seat of 

 the Druidical legislature, and by Great Mis Tor, 

 whence it would dart to Fur Tor and Yeo Tor, and 

 to Watern Tor, that overlooks that wild lonely lake 

 whence the Devonian rivers take their rise, and to 

 Cawsand Beacon, from whose towering top the flame 

 would be visible at once from both the northern and 



* See Heeren's Historical Researches, passim. 



