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founded on that fact.

These Dartmoor villages and huts, however, were usually connected with ancient tin workings. The old legends of Europe seemed to connect with the arts of metallurgy the dwarfs, who, perhaps, could be identified with the small dark-skinned races allied to the Lapps and Basques, and of whom traces are to be found in many corners of Europe. Some of these Dartmoor huts might be, no doubt, comparatively modern, but the stone avenues and circles in connection with others pointed to a distant antiquity, at least as old as the Roman occupation.

DR. A. CAMPBELL, V.P., said, that the long rows of loose stones described by Mr. Bate appeared to him to be indisputable signs of cultivation, as they were in many parts of the Highlands of Scotland, and in the Himalaya mountains, where the level land was scanty and the soil was poor and encumbered with stones. Whether they were evidence of cultivation in very ancient times, or within a legendary or more recent period, was the question of importance to be solved.

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MR. MOGGRIDGE made some remarks in reference to the orientation of the ancient hut circles, which, though generally on south-eastern slopes, are not uniformly so placed. One of the Precilly hills, in Pembrokeshire, is crowned by a fine old British camp. Both within and without the lines of fortification are many of these circles. ground slopes to different points of the compass, and the entrance is at the lowest part of the circle; indeed, this could hardly be otherwise, or the dwelling would be flooded in heavy rains. The same, to a smaller extent, may be seen at Mynydd Carn Goch, in Carmarthenshire.

MR. A. L. LEWIS observed that there were avenues of stones in Shetland similar to those described by the author, some of which were in connection with tumuli and others were not. Referring to the fact noticed by the Author, that these avenues all ran in certain special directions by compass, he pointed out that most of the circles had a single stone outside in a north-easterly direction (besides others frequently lying to the south). These detached stones were of the greatest importance, as they proved a unity of purpose, not only between the various circles in Britain, but between them and those in India, which were known to be used for sacrifice, and had similar outlying stones. This coincidence had not been much noticed, and it had consequently happened that the outlying stones had been frequently overlooked altogether, although, in a certain sense, of more importance than all the other stones together. The depressions in the tops of some of the cairns, he said, were probably caused by the falling in of the kists beneath. He had long been of opinion that the dolmens were not all originally covered, or, indeed, sepulchral. The "Spinster," at Drewsteignton, for instance, was not suitable for a sepulchral chamber, nor had any interment been found beneath it, and it was therefore reasonable to suppose that its object was not sepulchral, but perhaps sacrificial, or monumental.

COL. LANE FOX, MR. BLACK, and DR. CAMPBELL also joined in the discussion, and MR. SPENCE BATE briefly replied.

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