372 MISCELLANKA. 



lichens. Tlic spores of some lichens are known to bore into the 

 rock on which they select to gi'ow, and by so doing loosen the 

 particles of sand of wliich the sandstone is composed. Many 

 lichens gi*ow in a circular form, and radiate, or rather send out, 

 rings of growth periodically, the central part dying and decom- 

 posing, very neaiiy in the same way as the myceJium of some 

 Fungi form the rings which are commonly called Faiiy-rings. 

 Shakspeare embodies the once popular opinion in The Tempest. 



''You tlemi- puppets, that 

 By moousliine do the green-sour ringlets make, 

 Wlicreof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime 

 Is to make midnight mushrooms." 



Indeed, if the periodical Fairy-rings could be made permanent 

 from the centre outwards, we should have on a very large scale 

 precisely the same shape and appearance in a grass field whicli 

 wo now see on these supposed incised or sculptured sui-faces of 

 tlie sandstone of the Xorih-Xorthumberland moors. But th(^ 

 lichen is limited in its growth ; it cannot attain beyond a certain 

 diameter, and consequently we find these markings not more 

 than about eighteen inches in diameter, generally much less. 

 Also the lichen does not cut uniformly through hard and soft 

 material, as an iron or even a stone tool would do, but leaves 

 ridges of the harder parts it meets with, and tliis is precisely one 

 of the appeai'ances presented by these circles. "Whenever tlie cir- 

 cles are traversed by a narrow vein of iron-hardened sandstone, 

 the furrows are not continuous, but the vein remains permanent 

 and disfigures the symmetry of the pattern. Fine examples of 

 this are figured by Mr. Tate, Sculptured Rocks, PL V., X., XL, 

 and Dr. Bnice, Incised Markings on Stone, PI. VI., VII., X., 

 XI., XIII., XXI., XXIII., XXV., XXVIII.-XXX. ; but this 

 fact is most intelligible and convincing when you ha\c the actual 

 specimen before you. "Would any workman disfigure his pattoni 

 because he had a little harder material to cut through ? It is no 

 disgrace to a cryptogamic plant, or the wind, or the rain, that they 

 cannot always cut an exact circle; but a sun-worshipper who could 

 not outline the 8luij)c of his god perfectly, ought to sink in our 

 estimation below the visible liorizon, and a symbol-maker who could 



