By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.8., F.G.S., fyc. 125 



weight 33 of the stones at Avebury u at above fifty tun " ; and some 

 were thought to be 70 tons (Dr. Stephen Hale). 



One of the small circular sets is said to have had a stone 21ft. 

 high. Wilts Mag., (No. 33, February, 1869,) vol. xi., p, 344:— 

 " Extracts from a Common-place Book of Dr. Stukeley." "West of 

 Abury is another entrenchment sett with stones, one whereof makes 

 the end of a barn. - " 



u My IA Pembroke says the stones are of 200 Tun weight each 

 at Abury. (90 tons would be more nearly correct. — Ed.) 33 



Wilts Mag. (No. xli., March, 1874), vol. xiv., p. 230. From 

 Stukeley's MS. Notes. Rev. Bryan King (Abury). "The bulk 

 of the stones tho' not hewn generally f. square 10 cub. 4 or 5 

 thick." 



At Stonehenge the outer Sarsens mostly stand 12ft. 7in. out of 

 the ground, and are about 6ft. broad, and 3ft. 6in. thick (about 

 273 cubic feet, and about 17 tons in weight 1 ) . The imposts are 

 about 10ft. long, 3ft. 6in. broad, and 2ft. Sin. thick. (The "altar- 

 stone," which is not a Sarsen, is 16ft. 2in. long, 3ft. 2in. broad, and 

 1ft. 9in. thick.) 



In the Wilts Mag., vol. x., the Rev. A. C. Smith, referring to 

 the size of fche Wiltshire Sarsens, notes that " the highest stone at 

 Stonehenge is computed to measure under 25 feet, whilst the largest 

 stone at Avebury is scarcely 20 feet in height, and its weight about 

 62 tons 33 ; and this, being thick, is said by Messrs. Cunnington 

 and Long 2 " to be the most massive Sarsen stone in Wiltshire." 3 



1 " By hill-tribes in India large long stones, 20 tons in weight, are carried up 

 hills, 4000 feet high, in a few hours, by a horizontal arrangement of crossed 

 bamboos with men in the interstices ; and then one end is let down into a hole 

 and the stone raised upright in it by hauling up the carrying framework of 

 interlaced poles. See also the Eev- A. C. Smith's paper on " The Method of 

 Moving Colossal Stones." Wilts Mag., vol. x., 1866, pp. 52-59. A plan of 

 investing the stones with parallel timbers, and then rolling them has also been 

 alluded to. 



"Multorum manibus grande levatur onus." — (Ovid). The Society's motto. 



2 Wilts Mag., vol. iv., p. 336. " The specific gravity of Sarsen stone is about 

 2"500 or 2\ times greater than water. The weight per cubic foot is 154 pounds." 



3 A large stone stood at Avebury a few years since ; its weight was not less 

 than 90 tons. Idem, p. 336. 



