128 



NA TURE 



[December 12, 1907 



the bank below the pier, thus in some cases making 

 matters worse. The only place I know of where a know- 

 ledge of the bad effects of eddies on river banks has been 

 put in practice is in the river Adda, which drains Lake 

 Conio, Italy. There the irregularities of the banks seem 

 10 have been smoothed to some extent, and then simply 

 paved with small cobble stones a few inches in diameter. 

 Over this the water flows without eddies, and the banks, 

 so far as one could see, gave little trouble, though one 

 would imagine that if a break in this rather weak surface 

 took place destruction might be rapid. 



John AiTKiiN. 

 Ardenlea, Falkirk, December 3. 



May Gorsedds. 



In my communication to N.ati're, Mav 2 (vol. Ixxvi., 

 p. 9), 1 stated that there was another plan of a Gorsedd 

 among the lolo MSS. at Llanover. The important differ- 

 ence between it and the plan published in that number 

 is the omission of the solstitial stones. It is a May- 

 November Gorsedd pure and simple, based on the equino.x, 

 and for that reason very interesting. Both plans are truer 

 to ancient tradition than the present plan favoured by the 

 bards. The present orientation is exclusively solstitial, 

 against the best traditions in point. In the older plans 

 ihe May-year is given the preeminence in one, and is the 

 only year given in the other. In Both the older plans 

 the circle consists of nineteen stones, leaving open a 

 splayed avenue on the east, the breadth of which corre- 

 ■-ponds to the sun's course from August to November and 

 from February to May. Though the present plan of a 

 circle of twelve stones at equal distance from each other 

 isantiquarianly sound, one may regard the older plans as 

 still sounder. I have elsewhere' shown that the exclusively 

 solstitial arrangement of the stones in the present plan is 

 about the only point in connection with the bardic Gorsedd 

 of doubtful antiquity. 



The accompanying tracing (Fig. i), for which I am 

 indebted to Mr. T. H. Thomas, shows how the original 

 plan was rather carelessly drawn, just the kind of diagram 

 which an old bard would draw to accompany a written 

 description, as in this case, for the benefit pro'bablv of an 

 engraver. 



In the formal and authentic bardic records verv little 

 is said about the significance of the various features of 

 the Gorsedd circle. There is no dabbling in .u-chjeologv. 



-lolo's May G' 



It is enough for the bard to be able to say that everything 

 he records is sanctioned by immemorial custom. 



In the second quarter of the last century a bard arose 

 who claimed also to be a chief bard or archdruid, having 

 the bardic name " Myvyr Morgannwg." He attempted a 

 scientific and philosophical interpretation of the Gorsedd. 

 He insisted upon the absolute identity of the bardic insti- 

 tution with Ihe circles of the Stone age. He made several 

 successful hits at the truth about the Gorsedd, but wild 

 speculations and Irrelevant matter have made his various 

 writings hardlv readable. 



Tlie accompanying diagram (Fig. 2) represents Myvyr's 

 idea of the " most essential elements of the Gorsedd," and 

 is reproduced from one of his controversial pamphlets. It 

 describes a May-November Gorsedd, but with the solstitial 

 signs, except that Virgo is ti.xed at the equinox. The 

 diagram is true to the best type, but the interpretation is 

 a misfit. It is a forcible illustration of the disturbing 

 effect of a solstiti.il cull upon sound Mav-vear tradition. 



A a 



JJ.Tt^ 



Fig. 2.— Myvjrs May Gorsedd. 



.Myvyr has also brought his fancy to play on the central 

 stone. A mannikin, holding up something like a bow and 

 arrow, occupies the place of the chief bard, and the three 

 rays look very much like three clubs. Myvyr has nothing 

 to say about the only valuable feature of his Gorsedd, 

 namely, the May-November alignments. 



John Griffith. 



NO. I9S9, VOL. 'J^'\ 



.4 FISHING TRIP TO THE GULF OF MEXICO.' 



MR. AFLALO describes a journey to Florida vid 

 New York, a fortnight's tarpon and other fish- 

 ing in Florida, and the journey home by way of sundry 

 Central American and West Indian ports. The 

 account given by the author of his outward journey 

 differs in no material respect from numerous extant 

 accounts of similar journeys, but is somewhat marred 

 by a style rather reminiscent of that of the traveller 

 who has perforce to provide his daily or weekly quota 

 of copy for some periodical publication. Such sen- 

 tences as " In the middle of the ship soft-voiced 

 stewardesses gently raise thick curtains and say that 

 dinner will be up in a minute. It usually is. Fore 

 and aft there is neither curtain nor stewardess, but 

 one sufferer leans across a neighbour of a different 

 race and obeys the irresistible. Everything comes up, 

 even the moon at last ..." are hardly worthy of a 

 serious volume. There are, however, interesting if 

 slight allusions to and photographs of the Bron.x Park 

 Zoological Gardens and New York Aquarium, and a 

 good account of a typical American, health and 

 pleasure resort in North Carolina. 



Coming as it does from so well-known an authority 

 on sea-fishing as Mr. .Afialo, the second section of the 

 book is naturally by far the most interesting. The 

 account given of tarpon fishing as pursued at Boca 

 Grande is both full and lucid ; a sufficiency of detail 

 as to gear, methods of using it, and e-\penses is given 

 without any needless discursiveness or undue brevity. 

 The whole circumstances of the sport are brought 

 clearly before the reader ; the string of boats, each 

 with its armchair fixed athwartships for the angler, 

 towed out to the fishing grounds by a launch in the 

 morning; the fish gaffed long ere they are played to a 

 finish in the fisherman's eagerness to get back to the 

 grounds and kill a larger one ; the annoyance resulting 



1 "Sunshine and Sport in Florida and the West Indie ." By F. G. 

 Aflalo. Pp. XV + 272. (London ; T. Werner Lau ie, n.d.). 



