414 



NATURE 



[March 5, 1908 



NOTES ON ANCIENT BRITISH MONUMENTS.-" 

 VI. — Dolmens. 



IN some previous notes I have given an account of 

 some measurements of the so-called " cromlechs " 

 of Cornwall. In referring' to this subject in a more 



Theoretical value of May-year azimuths. 



Way Kovenibt 



Tiue 



M.ign 



separ- 



ebliry, looking 



general manner, it will be well, I think, pour priciser 

 les idies, to refer to the word itself. In English 

 works on archeology it is used as a variant for 

 dolmens, chambered barrows, 

 chambered cairns, and kistvaens, 

 while in France it is applied to 

 the more or less irregular circles 

 and groups of stones associated 

 with avenues ; and there the 

 equivalents of the Cornish "crom- 

 lechs," which exist in great num- 

 bers, are invariably called dolmens. 



It is convenient, therefore, to 

 use the word dolmen when such 

 structures are considered 

 ately from the circles. 



With regard to the examples 

 available for measurement in 

 Cornwall, the important, and in- 

 deed striking, conclusion was 

 arrived at that almost all those 

 given by Lukis were erected so 

 that the sunrises at the May-year 

 or solstitial festivals could be 

 plies to other localities, and 

 referred to other similar structures 

 in S. Wales which gave the same 

 results. 



I now propose to go further 

 afield, with the view of in- 

 quiring whether this law ap- 

 plies to other localities, and I 

 will begin with one I have 

 myself measured, the Devil's 

 bury. 



The conditions at Avebury are as follows :— Lat. 

 N- 51° 25'. Magnetic variation, j6° 40' W., 1906. 



' Continued from p. 371. 



NO. 2001, VOL. 77] 



True .Magnetic 



i° hill ; retraction o / ., / 



and semi-diameter N. 64 26 ... 81 6 ... S. 61 50 ... 134 50 



My wife and I visited the Devil's 

 Den, in company with Mr. R. H. 

 Caird, in July, 1906, and again in 

 A^ugust, 1907. The compass bear- 

 ing was N. 134° E. looking east- 

 ward through the aperture formed 

 by the three stones, and the height 

 of the horizon in this direction was 

 1° 25', thus agreeing with the value 

 of the November sunrise given in 

 the table. 



Here then, as in Cornwall, the 

 November and February sunrises, 

 when the sun has a S. declination 

 of 16° 20', are in question. 



It is well known that two of the 

 most famous long barrows in 

 England with their included dol- 

 mens are close to Avebury; one of 

 them, the " West Kennet Long- 

 Barrow," is described in Smith's 

 " British and Roman Antiquities 

 of N. Wiltshire," p. 154. I con- 

 dense his reference : — 



" The ' West Kennet Long Bar- 

 row,' indeed, is one of the most 

 notorious, as well as one of the 

 largest of the Long barrows in the 

 kingdom ; and although it is much 

 cut about, with a waggon-track 

 passing over the centre of it, a confusion of 

 large sarsens tumbled together at the east 

 end, and several big trees occupying its sides. 



Den 



Ave- 



it is still of imposing appearance. Let us first 

 see what our old Wiltshire antiquaries thought 

 of it, and then what it proved to be, when opened by 

 Dr. Thurnam. Aubrey gives but a brief and very 

 inaccurale description : ' On the brow of the hill, souli> 



