248 THE FOGOTT AT HAI.LIGEY, TEELOTVAEREN. 



It has been surmised that this part of the cave is in an un- 

 finished state. In one sense it may he, hut even then why was 

 not the troublesome projection levelled before the cell beyond it 

 was built ? Some explanation is needed. 



"We can scarcely imagine that this ridge was left to serve as a 

 barricade to protect the chamber within by tripping up an 

 intruder, and yet it may have been intended to deceive any who 

 might come to rob the place, for since the side chamber forms 

 the very inmost recess of the Fogou, and there is not another 

 like it in the whole structure, it may have been " the safe " into 

 which anything of special value was conveyed for concealment, 

 and a few pieces of timber or mere faggots properly placed just 

 within the rocky ridge and close to it, would have supported 

 stones enough to form such a screen as would have simulated the 

 end of the gallery. By this contrivance searchers would have 

 been led to suppose that there was nothing beyond, and the 

 inner chamber being so concealed, its stores would escape 

 pillage. 



But if this explanation of the reason for retaining the ridge of 

 rock be not deemed satisfactory, a better may perhaps be de- 

 duced from a consideration of the two following facts : — Iron 

 tools were probably scarce when the Fogou was made, and the 

 place was not worked out like a mine. We cannot suppose that 

 the heavily roofed* galleries and chambers here discovered were 

 formed by underground burrowing. When they were commenced 

 they must have been dug out like trenches, open to the sky. 

 Stones were thrown in from above and built up for side waUs, 

 long stones were laid across as a roof, gaps were stopped with 

 smaller stones, and then the -whole place was buried with the 

 excavated earth. In digging the trenches rocks would be as 

 much as possible avoided, and if any were met with, tools being 

 fragile and scarce, very little cutting of them would be attempted. 

 Thus it may have happened that the workmen passing uj) and 



* The covering stones of this cave have evidently been laid on from above. 

 At Pendeen Vau one of the galleries is neither lined nor roofed with stone, that 

 portion of it therefore may have been tunneled, or it may have been denuded of 

 its stonework some time after its construction. Thei-e is a rock-cut subterranean 

 chamber at Eedgate, St. Cleer, but that is apparently of later date than this 

 Fogou. The Treveneage Fogou has been partly deprived of stones. 



