CORNISH DOLMEXR. 87 



dolmens were squared and fashioned at the time of their erection 

 it does not foHow that tliis was done hy metal tools. Even in 

 the Paltcolithie age stone slabs were framed hy man without 

 any metal implements. In the cave of Frontal in Belgium a 

 sepulchral orifice was closed by a limestone slab, which exactly 

 filled it. Tliis was overlaid, and forced out of its place by a 

 clay deposit- of true Pahuolithic age, as is proved by its containing 

 the bones of the lion and the rhinoceros. ^^ In the Neolithic age, 

 also, we find the same thing. The opening in the sepulchral 

 chamber in the Aurignac cave had been closed by a limestone 

 slab, which had been made exactly to fit the orifice.'- Con- 

 firmatory e\idence comes from America. The ancient Peruvians 

 excelled in the art of working stone, but they were ignorant of 

 iron at the time of the Spanish conquest, and their bronze and 

 copper tools have been proved to be too soft for fashioning stone. ^^ 

 In Arizona, in North Amei'ica, the wonderful stone houses of the 

 Cliff-dwellers stand in the recesses of the precipices, and on the 

 slopes of the chasms and gorges of the rivers. And yet, in 

 these ruins no trace of metal has been discovered save a few 

 copper rings, so that we are compelled to conclude that their 

 builders framed the stoues without the aid of metal tools." 



I believe, also, that another error arises from imiting the 

 dolmens witli such stone monuments as gallery graves, cham- 

 bered tumuli, and artificial grottoes. From this has arisen the 

 jiractice of making "transitions" and "connecting links" 

 between the different megalithic monuments.'-' This has led to 

 much ingenious speculation concerning the evolution of dolmens, 

 but the result has been to complicate the discussion in such a 

 way as to involve the question in the most extricable confusion. 



An opinion is frequently expressed that the dolmens were 

 built by inaity races, and at various times. According to this 

 theory, we must speak of a dolmen-building phase, and not of a 



11. L' Homme pendant les Ag^es de la Pierre, by E. Dupoiit, p. 196. See also, 

 Fossil Mail, by Sir J. W. Dawson, pp. 296, 297. 



12. LyeU's Antiquity of Man (First edition), p. 183. 



13. Peruvian Antiquities, by MM. Rivero and Von Tsclindi, p. 230. 



14. This is the opinion of the Marquis of Nadaillac, in his Prehistoric America, 

 p. 240. 



15. See Lc Prehistoriqne, Antiquite de I' Homme, hy G. de Mortillet, pp. 599-600. 

 Also, Lc Prehistorique eii Europe, by G. Cotteau, p. 141. 



