284 FOOTPRINTS OF VANISHED RACES OF COENWALL. 



Tlie next race that appeared in Cornwall, tlie third in order 

 of time, was that of the Dolmen Builders.®^ The strange men 

 who raised the most important of our rude stone monuments 

 were a sea-faring and maritime people. They came into Europe 

 fi'om the south, having planted stations along the southern shores 

 of the Mediterranean, where they raised dolmens, and then passed 

 on towards the west. They were ignorant of metals, and belonged 

 to the Turanian family of mankind, and were possessed of a cul- 

 ture and a mechanical genius, which, for so early a time as the 

 Neolithic age, were truly surprising. Having made large 

 settlements in France,^^ and also in Ireland,*'' they, in due 

 time, reached Cornwall, entering our county probably from 

 Brittany or from Ireland. Their culture and their migrations by 

 sea are curiously evidenced by some of the oldest carvings on 

 the Dolmens. Occasionally we find on these monuments carvings 

 cut on the lower face of the capstone at the exact point of its 

 contact with the uprights. These must, therefore, have been 

 executed by the builders of the Dolmen before the cap-stone was 

 placed in its horizontal position. ^^ Many of these carvings con- 

 sist of semi-circular lines, which probably represent the waves of 

 the sea. This supposition is rendered more probable from the 

 fact that Dr. Barth found amongst the ruins in Tripoli the same 

 curved lines, which must have been waves, as they supported a 

 boat.'"' It is interesting to notice that Barth considers that these 

 carvings were the work of the Berber race, and some archaeolo- 

 gists consider that it was this race that raised the Dolmens 

 Other carvings on the Dolmens rej)resent oval and ornamental 

 shields, which are, aceorfling to M. de Mortillet,^^ the first repre- 

 sentations of coats- of- arms. On these shields, also, serpents are 



Q2. For a masterly description of the Dolmens in Europe, Asia, &c , the student 

 is referred to the great work of Mr. W. C. Borlase, entitled the Dolmens of Ireland, 

 which is a monument of profound learning and of patient labour. 



93. There are, according to M, de Mortillet, 3410 dolmens in France, Le Pre- 

 hisioriqiie, Antiqiiite de V Homme, pp, 591, 592. 



94. Mr, W. C Borlase states, that there are altogether 898 dolmens in Ireland — 

 The Dolmens jf Ireland, vol. ii, p. 418. 



95. These are on the Dolmens of Gavr Innis, and Loch Mariukar in Brittany, 

 and are figured by M, MortiW&t — Formation de la Nation F/micaise pp. 167, 16S, Also 

 by M, Cartailhac in his La France Prehisioriqiie, p ?38, 



96. Travels in Northern and, Central Africa, chap iv, p. 49, 



97. Formation de la Nation Francaise, p, 171, 



