1870.] of the Channel Islands. 157 



neighbourhood. The best Menhir in Jersey is a fine monolith 

 called Le Quesnel ; another, named La Pierre Blanche, is to be 

 found not far from the Mont Ube Cromlech. Under a flat Dolmen 

 near Corbiere Point, named Table des Marthes, some bronze weapons 

 were found by M. Ahier many years since ; but there is great doubt 

 as to this stone being connected with the other megalithic monu- 

 ments. Lines of Menhirs have been found in Greenland, where 

 they appear to have been mainly erected to serve as landmarks 

 during snowstorms, and some at least lead from the remains of 

 huts to the nearest water. Capt. Parry notices, after remarking 

 upon the remains of some stone-built Esquimaux huts, " We also 

 passed a singular assemblage of flat stones set up edgeways, each 

 about three yards apart, and extending at least five hundred yards 

 down to a small lake situated in a grassy valley.* 



The study of pre-historic archaeology has now become a recog- 

 nized scientific movement, but it may be remarked that, whilst the 

 stone implements, ornaments, pottery, human and animal remains 

 and interior ''finds " generally have been assiduously collected in 

 national and private museums, the cromlechs, sepulchres, and 

 barrows containing these articles have not yet received their due 

 amount of public attention. In all collections of pre-historic relics, 

 which ought always to be local in order to be really instructive, 

 there should be models (to scale) of the structures and localities in 

 which the relics were found. No remains should be suffered to be 

 taken away from the neighbourhood of the "find;" casts and fac- 

 similes would answer the purpose in the national collections. The 

 Kev. W. Lukis says " that the principal if not sole object of some 

 investigators appears to be the possession of the articles which have 

 been deposited with human remains. The object of the archaeolo- 

 gist should not be the mere gratification of curiosity nor the 

 accumulation of ancient works of art. A museum of antiquities is 

 comparatively worthless if the history of the discovery of each 

 particular specimen is not accurately known and recorded ; these 

 examinations should be made with the sole view of throwing light 

 upon a dark period in the history of those who have previously 

 occupied the soil." 



This same gentleman has been so convinced of the necessity of 

 examining and comparing the megalithic structures in Europe that 

 he has spent four summers in Brittany, and (sometimes with the 

 assistance of Sir H. Dry den) made accurate plans of the circles 

 and avenues of Menhirs at Carnac, and throughout the Morbihan 

 district. In his lectures on these structures Mr. Lukis draws 

 attention to the fact that these lines or Paralleliths are universally 

 orientated, and that they all terminate in circles at their western 

 extremity ; whilst the bulk and height of the Menhirs diminish 



* Parry's ' Second Voyage,' p. 62. 



