232 



cross, the knots, and letters of an extremely early Christian period — 

 all of them much older than the date of the first authenticated descent 

 of lettered Northmen upon the shores of Ireland. 



XXIX. — On Bock Carvings. By Hodder M. "Westropp. 



[Read May 11, 1868.] 



Tke presence of carvings on rocks, stones, monoliths, cromlechs, and 

 other megalithic structures in many countries, bearing a remarkable 

 analogy and likeness to one another, has justly excited much wonder and 

 speculation. Sir James Simpson has published a very careful and accu- 

 rate account of the sculpturings of cups and concentric rings in various 

 parts of Scotland, accompanied by excellent illustrations ; Mr. Tate has 

 published those discovered in Northumberland ; Mr. Du Noyer has also 

 written some interesting papers on the rock carvings found in Ireland. 

 In Brittany the blocks used in the construction of the gallery and 

 chamber of the great sepulchral mound at Gaor Inis, in the Morbihan, 

 are densely covered with continuous circular, spiral, zigzag, looped, and 

 various other types of carving. The stones of the tumuli and cromlechs 

 at Loc Mariaker present figures of various military weapons and arms, 

 with some imperfect figures of animals. 



Analogous carvings of circles and very rude sketches of ships (ra- 

 ther canoes) and crews have been found on rocks and cromlechs in 

 Scandinavia. 



Bude representations of animals, with inscriptions, occur on rocks 

 near Mount Sinai, which have been attributed to wandering pastoral 

 tribes. 



Humboldt'mentions rocks covered with sculptured figures in several 

 parts of South America. He thus notices some on the Orinoco : — " We 

 were shown near the rock Culimacari, on the banks of the Cassiqui- 

 are, and at the port of Caycara, in the Lower Orinoco, traces which were 

 believed to be regular characters. They were, however, only misshapen 

 figures representing the heavenly bodies, together with tigers, croco- 

 diles, boas, and instruments used for making the flour of Capsava. It 

 was impossible to recognize in these painted rocks (piedras pintados), the 

 name by which the natives denote those masses loaded with figures), 

 any symmetrical arrangement or characters with regular spaces. 



Mr. Squiers has discovered analogous carved rocks at Masaya, in 

 Nicaragua, and Mr. Bollaert notices several in different parts of South 

 America. 



At the Cape the caves inhabited by the Bushmen, one of the rudest 

 races of humanity, are frequently found painted with the representations 

 of the animals of the neighbourhood, and sometimes with battle and hunt- 

 ing scenes. 



Various have been the conjectures with regard to the origin of these 



