Chap. II.— B. S.] SCULPTURED ROCKS. 27 
mains. Their relation, however, to the camps, forts, 
and hut-circles—the dwellings of the ancient British 
people—is more apparent than to their sepulchres. 
Stones with similar or absolutely identical inscriptions 
have been found in Ayrshire, Yorkshire, Scotland, 
the Orkneys, and Ireland; but, curiously enough, none 
have been discovered in Europe beyond the limits of 
the British islands. In Brittany, where so many 
Druidical remains have been preserved, and where we 
might expect to meet with the concentric rings so fre¬ 
quently repeated in the Northumbrian and other 
ancient British rocks, we search in vain for them. 
Some sculptures on the rock-temples of Malta, referred 
to prehistoric ages, are circinate lines, which may have 
some reference to serpent-worship, and, like some 
rude figures of eggs, may be due to Phoenician work¬ 
men. Nor can any connection be established between 
our British rock-sculptures and certain Egyptian 
hieroglyphics. In fact, we search in vain throughout 
the whole eastern hemisphere for the least approach 
to the rude but characteristic figures inscribed on the 
British rocks. 
It is, therefore, all the more singular that, thou¬ 
sands of miles away, in a remote corner of tropical 
America, we should find the concentric rings and 
several other characters typically identical with those 
engraved on the British rocks. I discovered them 
near the town of David, in Chiriqui, in the spring of 
1848, and, as already stated, read a paper on the sub¬ 
ject before the Archaeological Institute, shortly after 
my return to London in 1851. A brief account of it 
