notices of some of the Jersey remains, especially those of the parishes of St. Helier's, Grouville and St. Martin's.

It was the fate of General Conway's cromlech to be removed. It has been the fate of others to be destroyed on the spot. Mr. Bindextre (Poingdestre) who wrote some tracts on the affairs of Jersey, and died in 1691, says, that "there were not fewer than fifty of these temples and altars in the island, of which the greater part were demolished when Falle wrote his history of it. The cromlechs here are called Pouquelays, and there are some tumuli or keeps."

At the present time no more than four have been described as standing; and of these none is so perfect as the best-preserved ones of either Jersey or Guernsey.

The best of the modern cromlechs of Jersey is behind Anne Port, close to Mont Orgueil, and is figured in another page. It is remarkably perfect.

Alderney was formerly extremely rich in cromlechs and other antiquities of the kind. Most of them are now entirely obliterated, and all are obscure. Sark has but few, and in poor condition. Herm offers nothing of especial interest.

Of the cromlechs of Guernsey, those of L'Ancresse Bay are the chief. They are those that have longest commanded attention, and are most fully described. In 1811, a partial, a very partial, exploration was begun; or rather, we should say that, in 1811, they were first brought to light. Some soldiers, in clearing away the sand, came upon them; this had long been accumulating; for, though what is called the cotemporary evidence of the outline of the Guernsey coast having been in any important points different from what it is at the present time, is inconclusive, the physical evidence of the sand having encroached is complete.

Besides those at L'Ancresse, there are cromlechs of importance and in good condition, chiefly at the back of the island, between Rocquaine Bay and the Grande Rocque. The interior of one of these is figured at the end of the last chapter.

The great cromlech of L'Ancresse Bay, which overlooks the sea, the granite walls of which may easily be confounded with the ordinary rocks of the parts around, is remarkable, both in respect to its size and the complexity of details. With five vast capstones, it stands within a broken, fragmentary, and somewhat indistinct circle of smaller stones; and, at its eastern entrance, there is a secondary, or smaller, chamber. The present names, Temples des Druides and Autel des Vardes, are, according to Mr. Lukis, new,-the older name being Le Mont de St. Michael. When explored by the archæologist just named, who devoted much valuable time, and bestowed careful personal superintendance in his investigations, the whole of the interior was choked up with sand and rubbish. The soldiers of 1811, who had first hit upon it, were deterred from anything like an excavation by the fear that the walls might give way and the capstones crush them. No such fears deterred the later explorer. A layer of sand at the top, with a darker and firmer layer as a second stratum, led to the third bed, in which were embedded horses', oxen's, and hogs' bones. Beneath this, the lowest layer contained the bones of men and women, some burnt, some unburnt; the burnt ones calcined rather than charred. Under these, a floor of stones: and on one part of it a miniature cromlech : i.e., a small capstone on stone props, and under it arms and bones. But the great mass of remains lay on the floor at large, with kelts, arrow-heads, mullers, grinding-troughs, quoits, and hammers, all of stone; all of stone, without any instrument of any kind of metal. Of these, some were of obsidian, some of jade. Of frailer material, but still in good preservation, were numerous jars, of different forms and sizes; some coarse, and round-bottomed, others ornamented with zigzag lines. The nearest approach, both in ornamentation and shape, to these are from Friesland and Lower Germany, the old Saxon countries; though, from the rudeness and simplicity of the work in general, they have near congeners almost everywhere. They

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were unburnt; and, in no respect, like any of the well-known samples of Roman workmanship. Between the extreme forms, there was a sufficient difference to suggest the very reasonable doctrine that they were of different dates; and the same inference was drawn concerning the human bones. There was a higher layer and a lower layer, and the older remains belonged to the lower. It was not, then, by a single burial, or even by a single generation, that the floor of the cromlech was covered. In this, too, as in all others, innumerable limpet shells were found; just as in the Danish kjokkemiddings whole heaps of shells of the edible mollusca have been preserved.

The vases here figured were obtained from the cromlechs of Guernsey-the four central ones from those at L'Ancresse and "De-hus;" the smaller one, in the foreground, with knobs, from the "Tombeau du Grand Sarazin;" and that on the right from the "Creux es Fées."

All of them stood on the floors in the interior, amidst human remains. No bones or ashes were within them, but they appeared to have been carefully placed.

They are constructed of extremely coarse clay, and have been made by the hand alone, showing no mark of the potter's wheel. The clay appears to have been worked into shape and partially sundried before receiving the final impressions by which a rough kind of ornament is given. They have afterwards been imperfectly baked.

The substance of the above remarks has been communicated by Mr. Lukis.

The evidence that they had been previously disturbed by the treasure-seekers of a rude age, but of an age when greedy men were not daunted by superstitious fears, varies, of course, with

the several cromlechs; and, perhaps, even where it is the strongest, is capable of being improved. Still, the presumptions are in favour of it.

The same rule applies to a much more important question. Were the cromlechs originally covered by earth so as to be, externally, tumuli? The evidence that some were so covered is strong. With many, it is an inference drawn from the analogy of others. What was the rule? Where were the exceptions? In the notice of one of the cromlechs of the Pyrenees, we find the fact of there being an accumulation of bones and shells at the door of the cromlech, on the outside of which they all lay,— none being found inside. This looks like a feast after the entombment. If so, it is, pro tanto, against the tumulus having been universal. Its generality, however, must be tested by the minute examination of individual instances.

Among the numerous contents of these cromlechs are round beads of clay, which the islanders look upon as charms, and call Les roulettes des Fées. Doubtless they had, from the very beginning, some mysterious import, and passed for amulets.

Upon the rounded balls of the very hardest stones, smooth, and polished, and indicative of much skill and labour, a statement of Sir Robert Schomburgk, concerning exactly the same objects among the Indians of Demerara, throws some little light. How were they made? Sir Robert Schomburgk tells us that when the child of a Demerara Indian passes from infancy to boyhood, he has given to him a hard rough stone, which he must keep in his hands, rubbing and rubbing till it becomes smooth and round. It is years in becoming this; and by the time the task is achieved the boy becomes a man. Strange if, in Europe also, these rounded balls of hard stone represent some fourteen years of boyish work! Such, however, is the case in South America.

The cromlechs are called Druidic. But the ease with which the word Druid has been taken up, and the extent to which it has ob

tained currency, are reasons for criticising it minutely; inasmuch as they show that it was laxly and in a general sense that it was first applied. Add to this that, after its application, it became a kind of nucleus, around which innumerable speculations were formed, in support of which much of what has never been shown to be Druidism has been adduced. Some of this arises out of the practice of lumping together in one system everything which partakes of its nature. Yet the early superstitions of mankind are, all the world over, wonderfully alike; and that independent of imitation and without belonging to the same system.

Some reasons for this tendency to undue generalization lie in the original connexion of Druidism with Britain, everything which could be called British being called Druidic also; and on the strength of this, the philosophy, superstition, or mythology of the Welsh bards and logographs has been incorporated. The primary fact in the criticism of all this is a negative one. At first hand, and from competent observers, we know next to nothing of Druidism. Nine-tenths of our knowledge comes from a couple of pages in Cæsar's Commentaries. That no one had better opportunities for learning the truth is plain; and in taking Cæsar's account as our chief text, we must notice not only what he says, but what he does not say. Now the evidence of the erection of menhirs, cromlechs, and the like, being any part of the Druidic system is nil. The most that can be said of his notice is that it gives us an approximation to something of the kind.

Premising that in Gaul the common people were of no account, Cæsar states that, between two privileged classes, the whole of the political power was divided; divided between the Knights and the Druids. The latter were the ministers and interpreters of the religious doctrines and observances (religiones). They directed both the public and private sacrifices. The youth of the country addressed itself to them for discipline and instruction. In private controversies and public councils, they decided.

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