1802.] 
Rivers Huallaga, Pachitea, and Ucayali: 
from this branch proceed all the rivers on 
the weft fide of Manoa, and a number of 
inferior mountain-ridges. 
Viewed from the tops of thefe moun- 
tains, the Montanna Real has the appear- 
ance of an immenfe plain, or wide ex- 
tending furface of water; for the woods 
and heights are fo blended together, that 
they form but one picture. Nothing can 
be more agreeable to the eye than the 
perpetual verdure of this traé& of country. 
During feveral hours of the day, a denfe 
mult is fpread over the woods of the Mon- 
tanna. Inno country on earth is*there 
more rain and thunder. The thick and 
impenetrable foreft hinders the fun from 
either warming or drying the ground ; 
and the confequent exceffive humidity 
gives birth to innumerable {warms of in- 
feéts and reptiles. The ferpents, in par- 
ticular, are faid to be of an enormous 
fize, and even to furpafs, in that refpect, 
thofe of the Eaft Indies. It is pretended, 
that feme have been found, which mea- 
fured forty varas in length, and three in 
circumference. But the naturalift will 
paufe before he gives credit to thefe 
feemingly exaggerated reports of the mif- 
fionaries, till they are confirmed by the 
teftimony of fucceeding travellerse 
The rareft and moft valuable produc- 
tions of the Montanna Real belong to the 
vegetable kingdom. Thetreesand fhrubs, 
even in their wild fiate, produce excellent 
and delicious fruits, many of them diftil- 
ling fweet-fmelling oils, gums, pitch, and 
frankincenfe. The cinnamon produced 
here is indeed inferior to that of Ceylon ; 
but by many it is decreed fuperior to that 
brought from the ifland of Java; and 
perhaps it might be fo far improved by 
cultivation as to equal the former. Wax, 
cacao, cafcarilla, and ducheri, a kind of 
kerne}, which is as good as black pepper, 
and cloves, are found here in great abun- 
dance. 
Many parts of the Montanna, however, 
are very unhealthy, and fubjeét to nume- 
rous epidemical difeafes; owing chiefly to 
the inceffant alternations of exceffive heat 
and moifture; hence few of the inhabi- 
tants live long. Among the native In- 
dians, who generally dwell on the banks 
of therivers,a perfon even of soyears of age 
is a rare phenomenon, and the country is 
very thinly peopled. 
Spanifh part of the Montanna Real, the 
nomber of Indians, who have been con- 
verted to Chriftianity, or live upon friend- 
ly terms with the Spaniards, is reckoned 
Rot to exceed eight thowland fouls. 
Account of the Antiquities of Carnac. 
In the whole of the . 
507 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N your lat number, page 200, your in- 
genious and re{peétable correfpondent, 
Mr. J. Britton, exprefies a moft natural 
curiofity refpecting the very extraordinary 
monument of antiquity exifting near Car- 
nac, on the coaft of the province of Bré- 
tagne, now in the department of Morbi- 
han, in France. 
Permit me, then, to furnith the follow- 
ing heads on that {ubjeét, colle&ted from 
notes made during a vifit I paid to that 
part of the country in 1787, chiefly for the 
purpofe of afcertaining the fituation of the 
capital of the antient Venati, with other 
circumftances handed down to us by Ju- 
lius Czefar, in the third book of his Com- 
mentartis de Bello Gallico. 
To proceed at once to the fubjeét.— 
About tweive geographical miles, or four- 
teen Englith, on the map, weft by fouth 
from Vannes, and about two Englith miles 
eaft from the low fandy ifthmus which 
connects the projecting peninfula of Qui- 
beron to the main land, lies a village call- 
ed Carnac, half a mile up from the fea ; 
in the neighbourhood of which, to the 
northward, is one of the moft remarkable 
monuments of antiquity now known.— 
The fea-coaft at Carnac extends nearly 
eaft and weft, for a fpace of 32 Englifh 
miles, between a little river at Plouhar- 
mel on the weft, feparating it from the 
ifthmus of Quiberon, and another fmall 
ftream at La Trinité on the eaft, both runs 
ning in deep-channels, into which the 
flood-tide rufhes with great force, and to 
a confiderable depth, 
About a mile back from the fhore, and 
extending parallel to it, are feen eleven 
rows of rude, unfhapen rocks, or blocks 
of ftone, of all irregular forms and fizes, 
The rows may, in a gereral fenfe, be con- 
fidered as ftraight, although they are nei- » 
ther ftri€tly parallel one to another, nor 
are they placed at equal diftances afunder ; 
for in counting them acrofs, towards the 
eaft end, beginning at the row next the 
fea, I found their intervals, the thicknefs 
of the ftones not included, to be nearly as 
follow :—the firft interval, 36 feet Eng- 
lifh, the fecond 33 feet, the third 36 feet, 
the fourth 38 feet, the fifth 30 feet, the 
fixth 30 feet, the feventh 22 feet, the 
eighth 24 feet, the ninth 25 feet, and the 
tenth only 14 feet. ‘The fpaces between 
the ftones, as they ftand in the rows, are 
very various, from twelve to twenty feet. 
Some ftones are fmall, and only a few feet 
above the furface ; but by far the greater 
. number 
