332 Mr. Brayley, Jun., on the alleged 



thus supposed to be afforded, he makes the subjoined remarks 

 on Rock -basins: 



" Some of the rock -basins may be excavations produced by 

 natural causes, but the form of others is much too regular, 

 and affords indications of design which leave no room to 

 doubt of their being artificial ; nor is it easy to imagine from 

 what their origin could be derived, if not from Druidical su- 

 perstition. The notion of Dr. Macculloch and others, that 

 rock-basins have been formed by the action of water, air and 

 frost on the softer parts of the stone in all instances, seems 

 to be entirely unfounded; for, if such were the case, how 

 comes it to pass that they are found only on the tops of the 

 tors, and sometimes on the logan-stones? This, if the writer 

 is not mistaken, is a singular fact, and tends to strengthen the 

 idea that these tors and logan-stones were appropriated by 

 the Druids to their religious rites. If the basins were exca- 

 vations produced by natural causes, why are they not found 

 on numerous other rocks and in different situations? This 

 circumstance, in conjunction with their regularity and the pe- 

 culiar form common to many of them, seems to leave little 

 room for scepticism*." 



An impression, however, had been made upon the mind 

 of the present writer, by Dr. Macculloch's arguments on this 

 subject f, and confirmed by the observations he had enjoyed an 

 opportunity of making on the very spot regarded by Dr. Bor- 

 lase as having been the grand centre of Druidical worship, — 

 Carnbrea Hill, in Cornwall — which was left unshaken by the 

 perusal of the foregoing remarks. He conceived, therefore, 

 that he should be liable to the charge of indifference to the 

 interests of scientific truth, were he to refrain, when mention- 

 ing the Rock-basins of Devonshire, from stating and con- 

 firming the conclusions at which Dr. Macculloch had arrived. 

 While, on the other hand, to leave those remarks unnoticed, 

 might have seemed culpable inattention to the opinion of his 

 friend and coadjutor Mr. Moore. Accordingly, in a section 

 of the work allotted to the mineralogical characters, struc- 

 ture, and external configuration of the granite of Dartmoor, 

 he introduces the following examination of Mr. Moore's views, 

 succeeded by some further remarks on the geological history 

 of the subject. 



The regularity of form of the rock-basins, which is ad- 

 duced, by Mr. Moore, as a proof of their being artificial, is 



* Hist, and Topog. of the County of Devon, Book II. Chap. i. ; Octavo 

 Edition, vol. i. p. 106. 



f See Dr. Macculloch's paper "On the Granite Tors of Cornwall," Trans, 

 of Geol. Soc. 1st Series, vol. ii. p. 72. 



a con- 



