time, with expressions which were construed to be those of sorrow, they returned to the high road, which they had left about half a dozen miles to pay this visit, and pursued their journey. There is another barrow, much resembling this in the low grounds of the south branch of Shenandoah, where it is crossed by the road leading from Rock-fish gap to Staunton. Both of these have, within these dozen years, been cleared of their trees and put under cul. tivation, are much reduced in their height, and spread in width, by the plough, and will probably disappear in time. There is another on a hill in the Blue ridge of mountains, a few miles north of Wood's gap, which is made up of small stones thrown together. This has been opened and found to contain human bones as the others do. There are also many others in other parts of the country." CAIRNS. These are to be seen in many places of Britain, particularly Scotland and Wales. They are composed of stones of all dimensions thrown together in a conical form, a flat stone crowning the apex. Various causes have been assigned by the learned for these heaps of stones. They have supposed them to have been, in times of inauguration, the places where the chieftain elect stood to show himself to the best advantage to the people; or the place from whence judgement was pronounced; or to have been erected on the road side in honour of Mercury; or to have been formed in memory of solemn compact, particularly where accompanied by standing pillars of stones; or for the celebration of certain reli gious ceremonies. Such might have been the reasons, in some instances, where the evidences of stone chests and urns are wanting; but these are so generally found that they seem to determine the most usual purpose of the piles in question to have been for sepulchral monuments. Even this destination might render them suitable to other purposes; particularly religious, to which by their nature they might be supposed to give additional solemnity. According to Toland, fires were kindled on the tops of flat stones, at certain times of the year, particularly on the eves of the 1st of May and the 1st of November, for the purpose of sacrificing; at which time all the people having extinguished their domestic hearths rekindled them from the sacred fires of the cairns. In general, therefore, these accumulations appear to have been designed 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 monu ments 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 "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 won. derful 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. word gygonius seems to be Celtic; for gwingog signifies motitans, the rocking-stone. The 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 It is called the Logan stone, remove it from its present situation. and it is such a height from the ground that no person can believe But there are that it was raised to its present position by art. rence. 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. 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 rock. ing 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 How far this what could not otherwise be extorted from them. 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. SECTION I. Ark of Noah. THE 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 hun. dred 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 aλXoxolov, the absurd ark. This difficulty is solved by Buteo and Kircher, who, supposing the com. mon 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 |