remoteness of the era to which some of them belong, and supplying data which may hereafter prove to be reducible to definite computation. The accumulation, not only of alluvium, but of peat-moss over the structures of early art, has already been referred to in describing the ancient boats, harpoons, etc., discovered in various localities; and will repeatedly recur in the course of our inquiry in relation to various classes of memorials of the past. The traveller, in passing from Bunaw Ferry, on Loch Etive, to Beregonium, Argyleshire, passes over an extensive moor, known by the name of the "Black Moss." On this, or rather rising up through it, are several large cairns, with here and there the remains of others which have been demolished for the purpose of enclosing fields or building cottages. In various parts considerable portions of the moss have been cleared away, exposing, at a depth of from eight to ten feet, the original soil upon which these sepulchral mounds have been reared, and bringing to light other memorials of their builders, hereafter referred to. With such evidence of the slow growth of centuries obliterating the traces of primitive occupation, and effecting such changes on the natural features of the country, it is no vague conjecture which refers to an era altogether prior to that of its earliest historic occupants, the period when this wild and barren moor was the scene of life and intelligence, and, it may be, of many useful arts. Along with the Black Moss cairns may be mentioned another group, including one of unusually large dimensions, not enclosed by the gathered moss of ages, but surrounded by the encroaching tide, on the north shore of the Firth of Beauly, Ross-shire, affording no less striking, though diverse evidence of the remoteness of their era. In one of them sepulchral urns have been found, leaving no room to doubt their monumental character. The largest stands about 400

yards within flood-mark; and an ingenious writer in the Philosophical Transactions arrives at the conclusion that an area of fully ten miles square, now flooded by the advancing tide, has once been the site of the dwellings of the ancient cairn-builders. Thus is it, while Time is sweeping away the hoar relics of the past, the traces of his footprints enable us occasionally to return upon his track, and learn how great is the interval that separates our own age from the era of their birth-time.

The Cromlech, which is now almost universally recognised as a sepulchral monument, forms another laborious. and costly memorial dedicated by the veneration or gratitude of primitive ages to the honour of their illustrious dead. It consists of three or four unhewn columns, supporting a huge table or block of stone, and forming together a rectangular chamber, which is occasionally further enclosed by smaller stones built into the intervening spaces. Beneath this there is generally found a corresponding cist or sepulchral chamber enclosing the skeleton, disposed in a contracted position, and accompanied with urns, stone implements, and other relics of an early period. As the sepulchral tumulus is justly regarded as only a gigantic grave-mound, so the origin of the cromlech may be traced to the desire of providing a cist for the last resting-place of the chief or warrior, equally distinguished from that which sufficed for common dust; and as such, repeated discoveries serve to indicate that the cromlech was sometimes buried beneath a huge mound of earth, so as to constitute in its complete form a chambered tumulus. A distinction, however, must be made between the buried megalithic cist and the true cromlech, which was not in itself the sepulchral chamber, but a monumental structure reared over the grave. This class of monuments is rare in Scotland, when compared with other megalithic structures that

abound in almost every district. Some few interesting examples, however, are still found perfect, while partial traces of a greater number remain to show that the cromlech was familiar to the builders of the Scottish monolithic era. One of the most celebrated Scottish cromlechs is a group styled, THE AULD WIVES' LIFT, near Craigmadden Castle, Stirlingshire. It is remarkable as an example of a trilith, or complete cromlech, consisting only of three stones. Two of nearly equal length support the huge capstone, a block of basalt measuring fully

eighteen feet in length, by eleven in breadth, and seven in depth. A narrow triangular space remains open between the three stones, and through this every stranger is required to pass on first visiting the spot, if, according to the rustic creed, he would escape the calamity of dying childless. It is not unworthy of being noted, that though the site of this singular cromlech is at no great elevation, a spectator standing on it can see across the island from sea to sea; and may almost at the same moment observe the smoke from a steamer entering the Firth of Clyde, and from another below Grangemouth, in the Forth.

From the traces of ruined cromlechs still visible in various parts of the country, some of them appear to have been encircled, like a class of barrows described

above, with a ring of standing-stones; and it is probable that many of the smaller groups throughout the country, designated temples, or Druidical circles, belong to this class of sepulchral memorials. Such is the case with a megalithic group in the parish of Sandwick, Orkney, and it is still more noticeable in the ring of Stennis, where the cromlech lies overthrown beside the gigantic ruins of the circle which once enclosed it. Various other cromlechs still remain in Orkney. One called the Stones of Vea, situated on the moor about half a mile south of the manse of Sandwick, though overthrown, is otherwise. uninjured. The capstone measures five feet ten inches, by four feet nine inches, and still rests against two of its supporters. A group, which stands on the brow of Vestrafiold, appears to have included two if not three cromlechs. There is another remarkable assemblage, in a similarly ruined state, near Lamlash Bay, in the island of Arran; and a single cromlech stood-if it does not still stand, in the centre of a stone circle in the same island. A fine one also remains, in perfect preservation, on the southern declivity of the hill of Sidla, Forfarshire; another good example has been preserved on the farm of Ardnadam, in the parish of Dunoon, Argyleshire; and others, more or less complete, are to be seen at Achnacreebeg, Ardchattan, at Nisibost in the Isle of Harris, and in various other districts of the West Highlands. Others of those gigantic structures in all probability still lie buried under their tumular mounds. In 1825 one was discovered on the removal of a tumulus of unusual size, situated near the west coast of the peninsula of Cantyre. It contained only the greatly decayed remains of a human skeleton, but in the superincumbent soil were found many bones, and the teeth of the horse and ox, also in a state of decay. The capstone of this megalithic cist

1 Martin's Western Isles, p. 220.

measured five by four feet, and its four supporters were each about three feet high. More recently the cromlech unexpectedly brought to light under nearly similar circumstances, on the levelling of a large mound in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, has attracted unusual attention alike from its locality, and the interest of its disclosures.

The whole of those examples are constructed of rough and entirely unhewn blocks. The annexed figure represents a partially ruined cromlech, at Bonnington Mains, near Ratho, a few miles west of Edinburgh, which is specially interesting from some traces it retains of artificial tooling. Along the centre of the large capstone shallow perforations have been made at nearly regular intervals, possibly indicating a design of splitting it in two; though on first visiting it, my rustic guide pointed them out to me as the impressions of a dog's feet! The idea curiously corresponds with an ancient monument recorded by Nennius as the tenth wonder of the Island of Britain. It is "a stone upon the cairn in Bocuilt with the impression of the paws of Arthur's dog in it; and though it should be carried away to any part of the world, it would be found on the same cairn again." The more practical idea suggested above corresponds to that formed by Mr. F. C. Lukis in a somewhat parallel case, though any indication of artificial formation in such primitive structures is of the very rarest occurrence. Mr. Lukis remarks in a communication to the Archæological Association :-"I send a sketch of the cromlech on L'Ancresse Common, Guernsey, on which we have discovered a string of indentations, probably made with a view to trim the side prop to the required size of the capstone. These are the first appearances of art in any of the primeval monuments, and nowhere have we found anything of the kind excepting on a menhir in the parish

1 Archæol. Scot. vol. iii. p. 43.