Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/133

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
"DRUID STONES" OF BRITTANY
129
Kermario is behind the woods at the farther end of the lines. At the extreme right of the view is the Mont St. Michel, a sepulchral monument or galgal, entirely artificial (see p. 134).

an area about 320 by 3,700 feet. The largest menhir, which has fallen, is 21 feet in total length, while the smallest stands but a foot and a half above the ground. In Kerlescan the cromlech of 39 stones is quadrangular in outline with rounded corners, while the alignment proper consists of 540 menhirs in thirteen rows in an area 2,700 feet long with an interruption of 600 feet where the little village of Kerlescan is situated. The largest of the stones is thirteen feet in height, the smallest only two feet above the surface of the ground.

While dolmens and isolated menhirs occur all around Carnac; the most striking of them are on the next peninsula to the east, near the little village of Locmariaquer. Here one must leave the road and go into the fields to see the monuments. Suddenly a one-armed man sprang up beside the carriage and led the way among farm outhouses, gardens and across vegetable patches, to the most remarkable of all these remains, which continually bring up the question, How could they have been erected? Largest of all is the gigantic menhir, "menhir groach," in the village itself, now fallen and broken into five pieces. According to Le Rouzic, who has measured it carefully and who has taken the specific gravity of the stone, it was originally 68 feet in length and weighed 382 tons. Le Rouzic also says that the time and cause of its fall are unknown, and cites a drawing of 1727 to show that at that time it was in its present condition. On the other hand, I have seen a little pamphlet