Mr. George Tate on Ancient Sculptured Rocks, 8fc 14S 



are but little below the surface, others are as much as half 

 an inch in depth ; usually however, the depth is about one 

 quarter of an inch. The hollows are deeper, some being 

 fully one and a half inch. The original character of the 

 sculpturing, is best seen on stones recently cleared of a 

 covering of peat, which has to a considerable degree pre- 

 served the figures from being worn and altered. These 

 appear to have been rudely executed ; the circles, grooves, 

 and hollows, have been chipped out by pointed tools, some 

 of which had been blunter and a little broader than others ; 

 the tool marks are in such cases distinctly visible^ and the 

 edges of the sculpturings are rough and jagged. Long 

 exposure to weather, has however, altered the appearance of 

 other figures ; it has smoothed the grooves and rounded the 

 edges of the spaces between the grooves, so that these spaces 

 now stand out like rings ; but this more finished aspect is 

 due, not to art, but to nature ; for the play of the elements 

 during many centuries, has smoothed and rounded the rude 

 workmanship of the primaeval artists. This efifect is shewn 

 in Plate X.,Jig. 6. The rock has not been prepared in any 

 way for these sculpturings ; it is in its natural state, ridged 

 and hollowed and rugged, as nature had made it ; and the 

 figures are incised on this irregular, broken surface, as well 

 as on the smoother parts of the rock. The roughness and 

 unevennesss of the surface of these figured rocks, might indeed 

 be twisted into an argument in favour of the sculpturings 

 having been made with a stone tool. However this may 

 be, the material of which the tool was made is not deter- 

 minable by the sculpturings themselves ; that must be decided 

 by other evidence. 



The number of figures on each stone is very different ; on 

 some there is only one, but on the great stone at Routing 

 Linn, sixty figures are still traceable. 



TV. DISTRIBUTION 0¥ THE INSCRIBED ROCKS IN 



NORTHUMBERLAND. 



The distribution of these inscribed rocks in Northumber- 

 land, is interesting. To correct misapprehension, I may 

 state, that they do not appear either on the Cheviots or on 

 their flanks. I have repeatedly searched these hills, and 

 especially their flanks for such inscribed stones ; but I could 

 never detect the least trace of a sculpture. This negative 

 result might furnish another argument in favour of the 

 notion, that these sculptures were made before metallic tools 



