Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/130

126 our first glimpse was rather disappointing. A couple of hundred feet to the left of the road was the first dolmen, a dozen stones, about five feet high, standing upright in a pasture, and roofed in by two large stones lying across them. It recalled a child's house on a large scale, built out of the lichen-covered stones of the field. By its side stood a square stone monument announcing that this dolmen of Keriaval is the property of the French Republic, and that any one injuring it in any way will be prosecuted. It may be said that by each group in the entire district is a similar stone. On the other side of the road are three dolmens, close together, standing scarcely above the surrounding soil but excavated inside so that one may stand upright in the interior.

It would serve no useful purpose to give our itinerary in detail, but a clearer idea of these strange structures may be given by a general description of the monuments as a whole, specifying here and there those of more particular interest from size or other features.

Possibly the most striking of all are the alignments. Certainly they are the most difficult to explain. Of these there are several groups, each distinct from its fellows, and yet the whole series being in the same belt. Many of the stones have tumbled down and some have been utilized in building walls and houses. Thus the little church of St. Cornély at Carnac is built entirely of menhirs, broken up into blocks of convenient size, while the curious crown that surmounts its west portal was carved out of a single menhir. Le Rouzic, whom I shall often quote, says that the series of alignments once extended from a point to the west of the village of Carnac, five miles east to the Crac'h River, while other series occur further west, near Erdeven.