holmes: pre-historic remains of rombalds moor. 293 
so remote as to be beyond mortal ken, or they are the sepulchral monu- 
ments of a people who lived so nearly within the limits of historic 
times, that their story can easily be discovered," we may ask Mr. Fer- 
guson, in his own words, to give us the story. Who were these 
people ? the dolmen builders ? and stone markers ? "Where did they 
come from ? where and when did they go ? His own map shews 
the distribution, and probable lines of migration, of the stone-mark- 
ers and dolmen builders, from North Africa, through Judea, and 
to India, East; to Spain, France, Ireland, "Wales and England, and 
Scotland, "West; and Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, North. 
The numerical distribution is exceedingly unequal, as shown by the 
deepening of red spots, wherever they are found upon the map; not 
knowing of the recent discoveries in Moab, it is left blank upon the 
map, but in South and North Spain, in France all through, "West 
Wales, and East Ireland, in Germany, East Denmark, and South 
Sweden, the dolmens are very thickly planted. In Italy, Greece, and 
Turkey, next to none, and in India but very few, apparently. A cor- 
rection would now give many in India, many in Arabia, and very many 
in Moab, and the East of Jordan, North of the Dead Sea. Similar 
circles and dolmens, with markings, have been found in Peru, and in Aus- 
tralia. Mr. Ferguson's three conclusions are, "that they are generally 
sepulchral, or connected with the rites of the dead ; second, they are 
not temples in any usual or appropriate sense of the term ; and lastly, 
that they were generally erected by partially civilized races, after they 
had come into contact with the Romans, and most of them may 
be considered as belonging to the first ten centuries of the 
Christian Era." The first two we may pass, but, if Anti-Roman, 
they could not commence being erected before 500 a.d. We have 
then but 500 years, i.e. from 500 to 1000 a.d. in which the erection 
of thousands of thousands of dolmens, including elaborate works such 
as Stonehenge, Karnack in Britany, &c., and from India, to Ireland, 
Spain to Russia, Sweden, Denmark, the Isle of Man, and Wales, 
to Phonecia, and Moab to Peru and Fiji, and to Australia, all to be 
erected! how they were placed, by a people nobody knows of, in 
a period when we have history written everywhere without a record, 
we leave Mr. Ferguson to reconcile and to account for. Take the 
