for the sepulchral protection of heroes and great men. The stone chests, the repository of the urns and ashes, are lodged in the earth beneath: sometimes only one, sometimes more, are found thus deposited; and Mr. Pennant mentions an instance of 17 being discovered under the same pile. Cairns are of different sizes, some of them very large. Mr. Pennant describes one in the island of Arran, 114 feet over, and of a vast height. They may justly be supposed to have been proportioned in size to the rank of the person, or to his popularity: the people of a whole district assembled to show their respect to the deceased; and, by an active honouring of his memory, soon accumulated heaps equal to those that astonish us at this time. But these honours were not merely those of the day, as long as the memory of the deceased endured, not a passenger went by without adding a stone to the heap: they supposed it would be an honour to the dead, and acceptable to his manes. Quanquam festinas, non est mora longa: licebit, To this monument there is a proverbial expression among the highlanders allusive to the old practice; a suppliant will tell his patro, Curri mi clocher do charne, "I will add a stone to your cairn ;" meaning, When you are no more, I will do all possible honour to your memory. Cairns are to be found in all parts of our islands, in Cornwall, Wales, and all parts of North Britain; they were in use among the northern nations. In Wales they are called carneddau; but the proverb taken from them there, is not of the complimental kind: Karn ar dy ben, or, "A cairn on your head," is a token of imprecation. CROMLECHS. This kind of ancient monument, consists, as we have already observed, of huge, broad, flat stones, raised upon other stones set upon end for that purpose. These monuments are spoken of largely by Mr. Rowland, by Dr. Borlase, and by Wormius, under the name of Ara or altar. Mr. Rowland, however, is divided in his opinion; for he partly inclines to the notion of their having been altars, partly to their having been sepulchres: he supposes them to have been originally tombs, but that in after times sacrifices were performed upon them to the heroes deposited within. Mr. Keiller preserves an account of King Harold having been interred beneath a tomb of this kind in Denmark, and Mr. Wright discovered in Ireland a skeleton deposited under one of them. The great similarity of the monuments throughout the north, Mr. Pennant observes, evinces the same religion to have been spread in every part, perhaps with some slight deviations. Many of these monuments are both British and Danish; for we find them where the Danes never penetrated. The cromlech, or cromleh, chiefly differs from the Kist-vaen, in not being closed up at the end and sides, that is, in not so much partaking of the chest-like figure; it is also generally of larger dimensions, and sometimes consists of a greater number of stones; the terms cromleh and kist vaen are however indiscriminately used for the same monument. The term cromlech is by some derived from the Armoric word crum, crooked or bowing," and leh 66 stone," alluding to the reverence which persons paid to them by bowing. Rowland derives it from the Hebrew words carem. luach, signifying a "devoted or consecrated stone." They are called by the vulgar coetne Arthor, or Arthur's quoits, it being a custom in Wales as well as Cornwall to ascribe all great or wonderful objects to Prince Arthur, the hero of those countries. ROCKING STONES-LOGAN ROCKS. Pliny Of these stones the ancients give us some account. says, that at Harpasa, a town of Asia, there was a rock of such a wonderful nature, that if touched with the finger it would shake, but could not be moved from its place with the whole force of the body. Ptolemy Hephestion mentions a gygonian stone near the ocean, which was agitated when struck by the stalk of an asphodel, but could not be removed by a great exertion of force. The word gygonius seems to be Celtic; for gwingog signifies motitans, the rocking-stone. Many rocking stones are to be found in different parts of this island; some natural, others artificial, or placed in their position by human art. In the parish of St. Leven, Cornwall, there is a promontory called Castle Treryn. On the western side of the middle group, near the top, lies a very large stone, so evenly poised that any hand may move it from one side to another; yet it is so fixed on its base, that no lever nor any mechanical force can remove it from its present situation. It is called the Logan-stone, and it is such a height from the ground that no person can believe that it was raised to its present position by art. But there are other rocking stones, which are so shaped and so situated, that there can be no doubt but that they were erected by human strength. Of this kind Borlase thinks the great Quoit or Karn. lehau, in the parish of Tywidnek, to be. It is 39 feet in circum. ference, and four feet thick at a medium, and stands on a single pedestal. There is also a remarkable stone of the same kind in the island of St. Agnes in Scilly. The under rock is 10 feet six inches high, 47 feet round the middle, and touches the ground with no more than half its base. The upper rock rests on one point only, and is so nicely balanced, that two or three men with a pole can move it. It is eight feet six inches high, and 47 in circumfe. rence. On the top there is a bason hollowed out, three feet eleven inches in diameter at a medium, but wider at the brim, and three feet deep. From the globular shape of this upper stone, it is highly probable that it was rounded by human art, and perhaps even placed on its pedestal by human strength. In Sithney pa. rish, near Helston, in Cornwall, stood the famous logan, or rocking stone, commonly called Men Amber, q. d. Men an Bar, or the top-stone. It was eleven feet by six, and four high, and so nicely poised on another stone that a little child could move it, and all travellers who came this way desired to see it. But Shrub sall, Cromwell's governor of Pendennis, with much ado caused it to be undermined, to the great grief of the country. There are some marks of the tool on it, and by its quadrangular shape, it was probably dedicated to Mercury. That the rocking stones are monuments erected by the Druids cannot be doubted; but tradition has not informed us for what purpose they were intended. Mr. Toland thinks that the Druids made the people believe that they alone could move them, and that by a miracle; and that by this pretended miracle they con. demned or acquitted the accused, and brought criminals to confess what could not otherwise be extorted from them. How far this conjecture is right we shall leave to those who are deeply versed in the knowledge of antiquities to determine. [Encyclopedia Britannica. CHAP. VI. NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. THE SECTION I. Ark of Noah. HE formation of this wonderful structure is undoubted in the Jewish, Christian, and Mahommedan world: yet its dimensions far exceed any vessel of modern date of the most extensive range, and appear to have been equally unrivalled in ancient times. There are nevertheless various difficulties which have been proposed in regard to it among those by whom its existence has been admitted. One question is as to the time employed by Noah in building it. Interpreters generally believe, that he was an hundred and twenty years; but some allow him only fifty-two years; some no more than seven or eight, and others still much less. The Ma hommedans say he had but two years allowed him for this work. Another question is, what kind of wood is meant by gopher wood? Some think cedar, or box, others cypress, the pine, fir-tree, and the turpentine tree. Pelletier prefers the opinion of those who hold the ark made of cedar: the reasons are, the incorruptibility of that wood; the great plenty thereof in Asia, whence Herodotus and Theophrastus relate, that the kings of Egypt and Syria built whole fleets of it in lieu of deal: and the common tradition through. out the East imports, that the ark is preserved entire to this day on mount Ararat, The dimensions of the ark, as delivered by Moses, are three hundred cubits in length, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height; which, compared with the great number of things it was to contain, seem to many to have been too scanty. And hence an argument has been drawn against the authority of the relation. Celsus long ago laughed at it, calling it xebwlov aλλoxolov, the absurd ark. This difficulty is solved by Buteo and Kircher, who, supposing the common cubit of a foot and a half, prove geometrically, that the ark was abundantly sufficient for all the animals supposed to be lodged therein. The capacity of the ark will be doubled, if we admit, with Cumberland, &c. that the Jewish cubit was 21.888 inches.— Snellius computes the ark to have been above half an acre in area. Cuneus, and others, have also calculated the capacity of the ark.Dr. Arbuthnot computes it to have been 81062 tuns.-Father Lamy says, that it was an hundred and ten feet longer than the church of St. Mary at Paris, and sixty four feet narrower; to which his English translator adds, that it must have been longer than St. Paul's church in London, from west to east, broader than that church is high in the inside, and about fifty-four feet in height of our measure. The things contained in the ark were, besides eight persons of Noah's family, one pair of every species of unclean animais, and seven pair of every species of clean animals, with provisons for them all, during the whole year.The former appears, at first view, almost infinite: but if come to a calculus, the number of species of animals will be found much smaller than is generally imagined; out of which, in this case, are to be excepted such animals as can live in the water; and Bishop Wilkins imagines, that only seventytwo of the quadruped kind needed a place in the ark. It appears to have been divided into three stories; and it is agreed on, as most probable, that the lowest story was destined for the beasts, the middle for the food, and the upper for the birds, with Noah and his family; each story being subdivided into dif ferent apartments, stalls, &c. Though Josephus, Philo, and other commentators, add a kind of fourth story, under all the rest; being, as it were, the hold of the vessel, to contain the ballast, and receive the filth and fæces of so many animals. Drexelius makes three hundred apartments; father Fournier, three hundred and three; the anonymous author of the Questions on Genesis, four hundred; Buteo, Temporarius, Arias Montanus, Wilkins, Lamy, and others, suppose as many partitions as there were different sorts of animals-Pelletier only makes seventy-two, viz. thirty-six for the birds, and as many for the beasts: his reason is, that if we suppose a greater number, as three hundred and thirtythree, or four hundred, each of the eight persons in the ark must have had thirty-seven, forty-one, or fifty stalls to attend and cleanse daily, which he thinks impossible. But there is not much in this; to diminish the number of stalls, without a diminution of the ani. mals, is vain; it being, perhaps, more difhcult to take care of three hundred animals in seventy-two stalls, than in three hundred. Buteo computes, that all the animals contained in the ark could not be equal to five hundred horses; he even reduces the whole to the dimensions of tify-six pair of oxen. Father Lamy enlarges it to sixty-four pair, or an hundred and twenty-eight |