584 
NATURE 
[April 7, 1870 
opens into a central passage or covered way ; (2) those 
with chambers opening externally ; (3) those containing 
cists instead of chambers. The essential distinction 
between a chamber and a cist is, that the former is entered 
by a lateral aperture, whilst a cist can only be opened by 
removing the covering stone from above. The views and 
plan in figs. 4 and 5 of the chamber and gallery of the 
great tumulus at West Kennet already alluded to will | 
show the reader at a glance the nature of the simpler 
specimens of the first and most characteristic type of 
structure. It is only necessary to add that the West | 
Kennet chamber was covered by three very large blocks of 
sarsen stone, and that its dimensions were as follows: 
length 8 feet, breadth 9 feet, height 8 feet. Some of the 
barrows of the first type—as, for example, those of Stoney | 
Littleton and Uley—are of much morxe complicated in- | 
ternal structure than that of West Kennet ; but they all 
possess in some form or other the central gallery or avenue, | 
Every one familiar with the surface geology of the two 
districts will, however, at once admit the validity of Sir 
Richard Hoare’s statement, that the absence of the stone 
structures in the South Wiltshire long barrows is simply 
due to the want of the necessary material. Referring 
in connection with this subject to the South Wiltshire 
Downs, Dr. Thurnam writes :—‘ Scattered blocks of 
silicious grit or sarsen stone are indeed found here and 
there on the surface, but they are neither numerous nor 
large enough for this purpose. In North Wiltshire and 
the adjacent part of Berkshire the case is different, and 
sarsen stones of large dimensions and in great numbers 
are found in the hollows of the higher chalk downs. 
From these were derived the immense stones of the 
circles and avenues of Avebury ; and as most geologists 
and antiquaries believe, those out of which the great 
trilithons, and mortised uprights and imposts of Stone- 
henge itself, in South Wilts, were formed.” 
FIG. I.—LONG BARROW AT WEST KENNET 
ingeniously supposed by Nilsson to be the homologue of | 
the passages to the caverns which probably served as the | 
first dwelling-places of man. 
It must not be supposed that chambered barrows are | 
confined to North Wilts, Somerset, and Gloucester- 
shire ; but those in distant counties appear to differ from 
(PERISTALITHS AND WALLING RESTORED) 
The implements and pottery of the chambered barrows 
agree very closely with the specimens derived from the 
simple earthen tumuli. The infrequency and rude cha- 
racter of these objects, especially when compared with the 
comparatively abundant and highly-finished weapons and 
tools yielded by the chambered tumuli of Scandinavia 
IS FEET. 
FIG. 2.—PLAN OF CHAMBER AND GALLERY 
those of the districts above referred to in certain respects, 
and especially in being usually circular in form. The 
sepulchral stone chamber, universally known under the 
name of “ Wayland’s Smithy,” though situated in Berk- 
shire, is close to the confines of North Wilts, and was 
originally covered by a true long barrow. Dr. Thurnam 
surmises that the barrow was removed, or at least the 
chamber disclosed, at an early date, as he finds that the 
name “ Welandes Smiththan” was applied to it so long 
ago as the middle of the tenth century, a name very un- 
likely to have been used so long as the barrow was intact. 
It might seem at first sight that the presence of mega- 
lithic chambers in the tumuli of North Wilts, Somerset, and 
Gloucestershire is a characteristic which entirely differen- 
tiates them from the simple earth mounds of South Wilts, 
and that we should be warranted in assigning the two 
classes of monuments to different peoples, or at all events 
to different stages in the history of the same people. 
FIG, 3.—FROM FYFIELD LONG BARROW 
and Brittany, are sufficiently remarkable. Perhaps the 
fact that our chambered barrows have been so generally 
searched by treasure-hunters in various ages may serve 
to some extent to explain the almost entire absence of 
polished stone implements. Such objects would probably 
have attracted the attention of persons of that class ; 
the ruder objects, having no value in their eyes, would 
be left inthe tombs. The delicate leaf-shaped arrowheads 
alluded to in our former article as found in unchambered 
tumuli also occur, though rarely, in the chambered 
barrows. Fig. 3 will show that the manufacturers (whoever 
they may have been) of these weapons were possessed 
of no mean skill in the fashioning of flint ; and it may 
perhaps be allowable to infer from the rarity and perfection 
of these objects, as contrasted with others obtained from 
long barrows, that they were obtained from tribes in a some- 
what more advanced stage of civilisation. It is a singular 
circumstance that all the leaf-shaped arrowheads have 
