192 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 



Each, depression then, is a circular, flat-bottomed, shallow 

 pit, much resembling one bored by an immense auger, but the 

 cutting must have been done by hand with some other tool, for 

 the circumferences of the pits are not all exactly circular, though 

 of fairly round form, nor are they quite uniform in size. 



There is one great peculiarity, — they are not all clear of each 

 other, nor are they of equal depth. Many overlap, or are cut 

 partially into, upon, and down through each other ! Above, 

 they appear tilted with the slope of the surface of the rock or 

 cliff. Below, they follow the inclination of strata. They taper 

 slightly, being rather narrower towards the bottom. On measur- 

 ing some of them, they were found to be 15, 16, and 20 inches 

 in diameter by several inches in depth. At a close view no design 

 nor arrangement can be perceived in their position, except that 

 they are well in sight some feet above the water. Erom a 

 distance this may be different. In a sketch made on the spot, 

 but not to scale, a conjunction of circles almost cruciform appears 

 nearly in the centre of the main group. 



To realize the appearance of the hollows one must " draw 

 on the imagination," and suppose that, whilst the mass of rock 

 was soft, and ere it had assumed a slanting position, some giant, 

 frenzied, blind or working in the dark, had lifted a great taper- 

 ing flower-pot, large jar, or nine-gallon cask, and had struck 

 downward, with the bottom of it, 30 or 40 times. Each pit 

 resembles one of the impressions that would have been so 

 caused. Their intermingling suggests that instead of each blow 

 having descended on a fresh spot, some did so, but many hit the 

 marks already made, and either partially or wholly passed 

 through them. 



The following conjectures have been offered, to account for 

 these rock-marks : — 



(1). They were cut perhaps by the Phoenicians to commem- 

 orate their visits to the locality. 



(2). They were scooped out, some say, by persons 

 condemned to hard labor as a punishment, the position 

 being dangerous for the workmen and the work 

 difficult. This is what the oldest inhabitant has heard. 



