90 CORNISH DOLMENS. 



An examination of a good dolmen map shows ns that they do 

 not occur in all countries, but form a "well defined band rimning' 

 down the west coast of Europe, and along the northern coast of 

 Africa.-^ The most northern dolmen in Europe is found near 

 Frederickshald, in southern Sweden, in ^9'^ N. Lat., from wh.ence 

 the dolmen-line runs through Denmark to Hanover, but there 

 are no dolmens worth mentioning to the east of the Elbe.-'" In 

 Holland dolmens known as Ilmievedden occur in the province of 

 Drenthe,"'* and from the Low Countries the band of dolmens 

 crosses the sea into Grreat Britain. In the British Isles dolmens 

 are most numerous in the western districts, such as Wales and 

 Cornwall : Ireland is also rich in dolmens."^ In the CJiannel 

 Islands they are found and have been well described by Messrs. 

 Lukis and Oliver.-'' France contains more dolmens than any 

 other country in Europe, there being nearly 3,500 of these 

 monuments known within its limits. They occur chiefly in 

 Brittany and in the south-east, and run across France in a band 

 from Caj)e Finisterre to the Gulf of Lyons. Thus, if a line be 

 drawn from Morlaix in Brittany to Narbonne, it will run nearly 

 through the centre of the French dolmen district.-' There are 

 some fine dolmens in Corsica, and they abound in western 

 Spain and also along the coast of Portugal. Then the line of 

 dolmens runs along the southern shores of the Mediterranean. 

 Dolmens are found in Morocco, and in Algeria, in which country 

 they are even more numerous than in France.-*' They are found 

 also in Tunis aiid in Tripoli. There are none in Egypt, but in 

 Palestine they occur in the land of the Ammonites beyond the 

 Jordan. ^^ A few dolmens are reported in northern Arabia, and 



22. That is, along the coast of Africa which forms the southern shore of the 

 Mediterranean Sea. 



23. La France Prehistorigue, pp. igl, 192. 



24. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. vi (1877), pp. 166-177. 



25. Nearly 200 dolmens are known in Ireland. Mortillet, Le Prctiistoritjue, p. 

 593, and Descriptive Catalogue of tlie Antiquities in tlie Museum of tlie Royal Irish 

 Academy, by Sir W. Wilde. 



26. Journal of the Antliropological Institute, 1872, 



27. There are branches to the east and west of this line, but there are few 

 dolmens of importance to the east of the Rhone. Some occur in Switzerland. 



28. Mr T. W. Flower describes these in the Norwich Report 0/ tlie Congress of 

 Prehistoric Archaology , pp. 194-216. 



29. Heth and Moab, by Capt. Conder, p. 222, &c. 



