466 



NA TURE 



[September 12, 1901 



monuments near Locmariaquer, and especially the 

 " Dolmen des Marchands," about two miles from the 

 village, where a granite block about 36 feet in length is 

 poised in a horizontal position upon three others 16 feet 

 high, the under surface being carved in a curious manner 

 with undulating grooves and with hieroglyphics of axes 

 interspersed. Then follows the account of a huge stone 

 now lying on the ground which has been broken into 

 five pieces, but presumably was once erect and stood 78 

 eet in height and 13 feet across at the base, weighing 

 about 340 tons.' 



Near Locmariaquer in the estuary named Riviere 

 d'Auray, there is an island named Gavr' Inis, or Goat 

 Island, which contains a good specimen of the kind of 

 dolmen which has been named " Galgal." 



" At the entrance our attention is at once arrested by 

 the profusion of tracery which covers the walls. From 

 the entrance to the wall facing us the distance is between 

 50 and 60 feet. The square chamber to which the 

 gallery leads is composed of two huge slabs, the sides 

 of the room and gallery being composed of upright 

 stones, about a dozen on each side. The mystic lines 

 and hieroglyphics similar to those above mentioned 

 appear to have a decorative character." 



An interesting feature of Gavr' Inis is its remarkable 

 resemblance to the New Grange tumulus at Meath. In 

 construction there is again a strong resemblance to 

 Maes-Howe, in the island of Orkney. There is also some 

 resemblance in smaller details. 



In excavations near Carnac and Locmariaquer, many 

 curious prehistoric implements and ornaments have been 

 discovered, which are preserved in the Miln museum at 

 Carnac and in a museum at Vannes. 



The main purpose of Lady Antrobus' sentimental and 

 practical guide is to give a popular account of the 

 interesting objects in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge, 

 and especially of Stonehenge itself, and in this it suc- 

 ceeds admirably. The sentimental part is very well 

 worth reading, but it is more in accordance with the 

 intention of this article to proceed to the practical part, 

 which is a very useful r^sumi of the chief authorities on 

 the subject, and it is illustrated by some well-chosen 

 photographs. The account begins with a translation 

 from Diodorus Siculus, who lived about B.C. 8. 



Hecatreus, the Milesian (who lived about 500 years 

 B.C.), gives us the following story : — 



" Over against Gaul, in the great ocean stream, is an 

 island not less in extent than Sicily, stretching towards 

 the North. The inhabitants are called Hyperboreans. 

 It is said that the soil is very rich and fruitful, and the 

 climate so favourable that there are two harvests in every 

 year. There is in this island a magnificent temple to 

 Apollo, circular in form, and adorned with many splendid 

 offerings ; and there is also a city sacred to Apollo, 

 inhabited principally by harpers who in his temple smg 

 sacred verses to the God. . . . Once in nineteen years 

 (and this period is what we call the great year) they say 

 that their God visits the island, and from the Vernal 

 Equinox to the rising of the Pleiades (about May i) all 

 the night through expresses his satisfaction by dances 

 and by playing on the harp." 



The first author who is considered to make un- 

 mistakable mention of Stonehenge is Henry of Hunting- 

 Jon (twelfth century). He speaks of it as the second 



1 240 in the text, but from other accounts this must be an error. 



NO. 1663, VOL. 64] 



wonder in England, and calls it Stanenges. Geoffry of 

 Monmouth {.\. d. i i 38) wrote of it about the same time, as 

 did his contemporary, Giraldus Cambrensis. 



Langtoft, in his chronicle, tells a curious story : — 



" .A wonder wit of Wiltshire, rambling to Rome to gaze 

 at antiquities, and there screwing himself into the com- 

 pany of antiquarians, they intreated him to illustrate to 

 them that famous monument in his country called 

 'Stonage.' His answer was that he had never seen it, 

 whereupon they kicked him out of doors and bade him 

 go home and see Stonehenge." 



Pepys says the stones are "as prodigious as any tales 

 I have ever heard of them, and worth going this journey 

 to see." 



Mr. E. S. Maskelyne, in a lecture read 1897, called 

 "The Age and Purpose of Stonehenge," fixes its date 

 as 900 or 1000 r..c. (a date which seems sufficiently 

 nearly confirmed by recent researches). Mr. Maskelyne 

 proceeds : — 



" I should like to add some reasons for my belief that 

 Stonehenge was built by the Phcenicians. In the first 

 place I cannot think of any other people that could either 

 have designed or executed such a monument, which 

 required both science for its conception and skill for its 

 erection. The Phcenicians, with their familiarity with 

 masts, cordage and pulleys could easily lift the imposts, 

 and they must have known how the Egyptians raised 

 masses of stone many times heavier. 



" The trilithon standing clear seems to have had some 

 fascination for the Phoenicians. They are found still 

 standing in Tripoli in Libya, and specimens exist on the 

 continent of Europe in Normandy and Brittany. One 

 may be seen in the island of Ushant and another in St. 

 Nazaire on the probable route they adopted for the 

 carriage of tin. ... 



"About B.C. 400 the Greeks supplanted the Phoenicians 

 in their trade with Britain. . . . Stonehenge must have 

 been a noted temple, and I cannot doubt that Hecata^us 

 did allude to it in the sixth century B.C. as the round 

 temple of Apollo in the land of the Hyperboreans. 



" As to the kinds of stone employed in the building, 

 the whole of the outer circle and the four stones beyond 

 that circle are undoubtedly ' Sarsen,' which are boulders 

 left by the ice-sheet of the Glacial period on the Wilt- 

 shire Downs. In the inner circle are four stones of 

 whinstone, an impure ironstone ; the remainder are 

 syenite, commonly called bluestones, and identical with 

 those found on Dartmoor and many parts of Devon and 

 Cornwall, the altar-stone being a kind of coarse blue 

 marble, perhaps from Derbyshire." 



Stonehenge stands about 440 feet above the sea-level. 

 The outer circle measures 308 (330 externally). These 

 stones formerly stood 14 feet above the surface of the 

 i^round. The uprights are unhewn, but have knobs or 

 tenons on the top which fitted into mortise-holes on the 

 underside of the horizontal stones, which were roughly 

 squared. 



Within this peristyle was the inner circle, composed 

 mainly of unhewn syenite obelises, and then the great 

 ellipse, formed of five (but some think seven) huge tri- 

 lithons, which rose progressively in height from N.E. 

 to S.W., the loftiest uprights being 35 feet above the 

 ground. Of these remain two perfect trilithons and two 

 of the upright stones, but of these one is much inclined 

 from the vertical. The fall of one of the trilithons took 

 place in a.D. 1620, owing to some injudicious excavations 



