8o 



8Mb or ILoto. 



THE QUARRYING AND TRANSPORT OF ITS 



STONES. 



By H. A. Hubbersty. 



HE probable method by which these large blocks 

 of stone were quarried, or separated from the parent 

 rock, would, I think, undoubtedly be that of 

 cleavage by wooden wedges driven into the 

 natural joint, or " dry bed " as it is now called by quarry- 

 men ; just as " rockery stone " is got at the present day, 

 except that iron has now superseded the wooden wedge, for 

 the stones at Arbor Low are almost entirely of this class. 

 In its natural position, the upper or water-worn, surface of 

 the blocks being partly or, in many cases, wholly, exposed to 

 the air, would be easily found and by no means difficult to 

 detach from the parent rock. It is to this water-worn surface 

 of the natural rock that the stones at Arbor Low owe their 

 remarkable appearance of extreme antiquity, for old as they 

 are in their artificial state, their pot-holes and crevices were 

 worn away by Nature ages before the day on which they 

 were set up. This will be apparent to anyone who will 

 compare the smooth or under surface of each with the rugged 

 and venerable appearance of the outer face — which was once 

 that of the naked water-washed limestone rock itself. 



In his excellent account of the recent excavations at 

 Stonehenge (Archceologia, vol. 58, pp. 73-4), Mr. Gowland 

 suggests, from comparisons with the illustration of the 

 transport of a colossus on an Egyptian tomb of the twelfth 

 dynasty, and with that of the removal of great stones in 



