86 



On the Stone Avenues of Carnac 



European scientific movement, being demolished by man's hand and 

 made more ruinous than the furious blasts of the mighty Atlantic 

 and tens of centuries of winters rains had left them. 



It may now be said to me, "You have told us what you suppose 

 were not the uses of these remarkable monuments, surely after so 

 long an examination and study of them as you have made, you are 

 prepared to tell us what you think these uses were.'" To you I must 

 give the same reply as I have given to others. I am just beginning 

 to learn the alphabet, therefore 'you cannot expect me to read the 

 language before I have mastered the letters. It is a step in the 

 right direction to have convinced myself that what has been supposed 

 to be one monument, is in fact a number of separate and distinct 

 monuments, each having its own features and peculiarities. There 

 are more monuments of a like nature, with individual peculiarities^ 

 in Britanny which are scarcely known. There are systems of avenues 

 associated with circles in other countries, in Great Britain, in 

 Lombardy, in Africa, as well as in India. Careful and accurate 

 plans of all these should be made, and comparisons instituted between 

 them, and researches prosecuted among them, and possibly their 

 difficult language may in course of time be correctly interpreted. 

 It seems to me that archaeologists have all been too prone to dogmatise 

 upon these monuments with an insufficient knowledge of their 

 construction. You may yourselves read in publications of leading 

 antiquarian societies in this country and in France, statements and 

 opinions relative to Britanny monuments which are based upon false 

 premises. Now in endeavouring to interpret the meaning of these 

 celebrated Carnac lines regard must be had and attention given to 

 two points, viz. : to groups of rows of pillars, and pillars arranged in 

 circles, and to these two distinct features here brought into relation- 

 ship with each other. Mr. Stuart, of Edinburgh, has expressed his 

 opinion that circles of stones are not temples, but sepulchral enclosures. 

 Up to this time, there is no evidence to show that the terminating 

 circles of Menec, and Kerlescant were used as burial places. It is true 

 that in the summer of 1869 I found fragments of coarse clay vessels and 

 flint scrapers and chippings within the area of the latter circle, which 

 Jiad just been broken up for planting, but they were too few to afford 



