Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/257

 POLRUAN— PORTHCURNOW favourable to smuggling; this little cove and that of Porthmear have seen many a run cargo. Further favouring the illicit trade, there is in a combe about a mile inland a caverned passage of the kind known locally as fogou, whose total length must have been over looo yards. Only a few yards can now be traversed. Although similar concealment places were some- times constructed in prehistoric times, this appears to have been the work of smugglers ; and it speaks much for the profits of that pur- suit, when we realise the cost of creating and maintaining such a lengthy subterranean passage. One gallery led to the hamlet of Trevethan, from whence another is said to have communi- cated with Porthmear. Porthcnniow (9 m. S.W. of Penzance) is interesting and unique in preserving the old name Gerniw or Kerniu, which is the root of our present word Cornwall. We can hardly do otherwise than suppose it is connected with the tribe whose Latinised name was Cornavii ; but the origin of the name is still to seek. One of the most ancient chapels in Cornwall can be traced here — more ancient probably than that of St. Piran. It is very small, and only the four mutilated fragments of wall remain, on an artificially raised mound. Thus we have one relic of antiquity resting on a relic still more ancient — for of course the cairn preceded the church, perhaps by many centuries. In the cove here is the station of the Eastern Tele- graph Company. The resident telegraphists 219