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THE GEOLOGIST. 



which bears most towards the north, measures twenty-five feet five inches, the 

 second measures seventeen feet three inches, the third, or that stone which 

 stands most towards the south, has a measurement of fifteen feet eight inches 

 in circumference. The measurements were made with a tape four feet from 

 the surface, taken as accurately as possible. Their sides partake rather of a 

 convex form. The sides of the first monolith measured seven and a-half feet 

 by four feet three inches, the second four feet three inches by four feet five 

 inches, and the third four feet eight inches by four feet ; but these side measure- 

 ments are only approximate, their sides being so uneven and irregular it is difii- 

 cult to obtain measurements with any degree of accuracy, hence, to take the 

 whole girt at once is the best means. Their altitudes I had not the requisites 

 with me for ascertaining ; however, according to Gough, as quoted by Professor 

 Phillips, in his "Rivers, Mountains, and Sea-coast of Yorkshire'' (page G7, 

 second edition), " The northern stone is sixteen and a^half feet by eighty-four 

 inches, the middle one twenty-one and a-half feet by fifty-five and a-quarter 

 inches, and the southern one twenty-two and a-half by four at four and a-half 

 feet above the ground." The distance of the exterior monoliths is respectively 

 sixty-two yards, and one hundred and twelve yards from that which is in the 

 interior. The middle antiquital relic, as I may justly term it, stands four yards 

 to the west out of a straight line v/ith the other two. The first which we took 

 dimensions of has the greatest girt, but is lowest in stature, due, no doubt, to 

 having had a portion of its top broken ofP at an early period. The second and 

 third monohths, as may be perceived by the figures of Gough, are much taller, 

 and lean in a southerly direction nearly a foot from the perpendicular ; hence it 

 is we come to the conclusion that it will not at all be unphilosophieal to attri- 

 bute their leaning attitudes to the elfect of tempestuous winds, which may 

 have blown athwart the island from the contrary direction during the last two 

 thousand years, during which time they may have stood. The lowest monolith 

 does not lean, but occupies a perpendicular position, although, as its side mea- 

 sures seven and a-half feet, or three and a-half feet more in breadth than either 

 of the others, consequently it must be confessed the winds must have had a 

 broader face to infringe against. We might, howeverj explain why this mono- 

 lith stands erects and why the other two partake of a leaning appearance, by 

 taking into Consideration the possibility of the top to have been broken olf 

 either at the time of its erection or at a very early period. Professor Phillips, 

 in speaking of these great wonders in the work referred to, says, " They have 

 doubtless been extracted from the great rocks of Brimham or Plumpton." 

 They are not made or built up out of many stones cemented together, but each 

 monolith consists of one entire mass of the same stone as the millstone-grit 

 of geologists. These pyramids are fluted or groined downwards, not by the 

 hand of art, but by the pelting rains which have fallen upon their apices for 

 centuries* Leland, an antiquary of the time of Henry YIIL, makes mention 

 of four. Cambden, immediately following, speaks of three, the other having 

 been thrown down by "the accursed love of gain" (Phillips, page 66). Some 

 writers imagine the stones to be trophies of victory. Others atfirm that each 

 Avas erected in honour and commemoration of one of the Roman emperors ; 

 others to the Druids. Prom what we are able to gather from history, the 

 Prigantes who lived in Yorkshu'C and the northern part of England, when 

 Druidism was in great glory, were a wild people, and lived in habitations made 

 from treeSj and interwoven with branches, w^earing for their clothing the skins 

 of animals, and lived chiefly by hunting. Their religion was chiefly Druidical, 

 as then prevalent in all parts of the island. They, too, studiecl medicine, 

 considered the mistletoe as their chief specific, audi held the mistletoe of the 

 oak with great solemnity, which, being very scarce, they gathered with great 

 pomp and ceremony on a certain day appomted for the great festival. They 



