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respect, the stone would probably never be raised, or, if it was, the cost, 
time, and labour expended would be something serious. How would 
the first lift of six inches at one end of the stone be accomplished, when 
the weight to be moved would be about 27 tons (allowing 145 lbs. per 
cubic foot) ? The shears which would support half of this burden would 
need to be beams of ‘‘ hardy oak,” and the ropes ‘‘a cable that never 
was broke.’’ But let us imagine the block raised to an angle of 45° or 
55°. The shears can no longer be worked with effect; props have to be 
introduced beneath the rising mass, and a new motive power must be 
devised to hoist it still higher, and eventually to place it upright. 
In the monolith to which I now direct your attention, such astone as I 
have imagined has really been set on end near the village of Ballinageary, 
in the county of Cork; and, simple as it looks, its great size, and the 
consciousness of its enormous weight, impress the beholder with feelings 
of positive wonder and admiration. 
The next progressive effort at constructive art is to be found in our 
cromlechs; and the example of one which I present to you in the illus- 
trations (Figs. 2 and 3) is beyond question the most perfect, shapely, 
and skilfully put together structure of the kind that I am acquainted 
with in Ireland. The table-stone, which is of granite, measures 12 feet 
by 11 by 4; and, allowing 170 lbs. to each cubic foot, it would weigh 
something like 38 tons. This block is poised on three tall, upright stones, 
also of granite, all of which terminate very sharply ; and thus a remark- 
able appearance of lightness is imparted to the whole group. I have 
endeavoured to illustrate this in the view I have given of the cromlech, 
looking south. The form of the table-stone, as here seen, is remarkably 
quaint. The other view, or looking to the west, is also very striking, 
but less picturesque. 
A curious superstition attaches to this monument. People having a 
wish which they hope may be gratified come here and cast a stone on to 
the rounded sloping surface of the table-stone, expressing at the same 
time their desire. If the stone remains there, the wish is to be realized ; 
if not, it had better be abandoned. 
Without doubt, the covering stones of our cromlechs and the larger 
monoliths are boulder blocks, and now occupy the same locality, or very 
nearly the same, as that in which they were deposited by the floating 
mass of ice which, in the ancient glacial sea, carried them from their 
parent site. We all know the simple theory suggested for their con- 
struction: that the covering blocks were dragged up an inclined plane of 
earth to the required position and height, when the props were inserted 
beneath it, and the earth removed ; or the mass of stone which was con- 
sidered suitable to form a cromlech having been discovered or selected, 
the props were inserted beneath it as it lay, and the ground lowered 
around it for the required distance. Simple though either process is in 
its description, to carry it out successfully in practice would require much 
care and ingenuity, as any error in the details of execution would mvolve 
the failure of the whole undertaking. If the props should happen to be 
placed in such a manner as not to accord with the centre of gravity of 
