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By Root 15899 0

spot. The Historical Triads of the Welsh refer their origin to the same cause. Camden calls the structure insane, but says nothing about it entitled to notice. Modern authors have been profuse in speculation, but no more. The general opinion seems to be in favor of a Druidical Temple. The Rev. James Ingram supposes it to have been "a heathen burial-place." Borlase remarks that "the work of Stonehenge must have been that of a great and powerful nation, not of a limited community of priests; the grandeur of the design, the distance of the materials, the tediousness with which all such massive works are necessarily attended, all show that such designs were the fruits of peace and religion." Bryant, whose authority we regard as superior to any, discredits the Druidical theory altogether.

We may be permitted to conclude this cursory article by an extract from the Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus — leaving the application of the passage to the judgment or the fancy of our readers.

"Among the authors of antiquity Hecataeus and some others relate that there is an island in the ocean, opposite to Celtic Caul, and not inferior in size to Sicily, lying towards the north, and inhabited by Hyperborei, who are so called because they live more remote from the north wind. The soil is excellent and fertile, and the harvest is made twice in the same year. Tradition says that Latona was here born, and therefore Apollo is worshipped above any other deity. To him is also dedicated a remarkable temple of a round form."

The ancient superstitions gave the giants credit for the construction of Stonehenge, believing that the massive piles were moveable but by giant power — hence, the name of Choir-gaur, which literally means "The Giant's Dance."

The whole number of stones now visible, amounts to one hundred and nine.

TRY A MINERALIZED PAVEMENT (BOTH VERSIONS)

VERSION 1

The suggestion of our worthy Mayor, that Broadway be repaired with granite upon a bed of concrete, has elicited much comment from the press, and the whole interminable topic of street-pavement seems fairly to be revived.

With all deference to the more matured opinions of our contemporaries, we wish to say a few words, or rather to insinuate a few queries on the subject ourselves; and we shall put our observations in the shape of addenda to the valuable hints published by us a few days ago, and for which we were indebted altogether to a well-informed friend who has had especial opportunities of coming to a just conclusion in respect to the matter at issue.

His plan, it will be remembered, had reference chiefly to the manner of arranging wooden blocks — to the proper inclination to be given to them, with the object of preventing the two evils of swagging, or floating in wet weather, and of decay. The suggestions were highly ingenious, and for the purposes contemplated the pavement of our friend seems decidedly superior to the overlapping and riveted roads, called stereotomic, which for some years past have been the subject of experiment at Paris.

In that city the wooden blocks have been found, with slight exception, to remain sufficiently firm at all seasons; but there, as here, the insuperable difficulty has been decay, a difficulty which, as far as we can understand, has been only very partially overcome, either by stereotomizing the blocks, or depositing them with their pores inclined from the perpendicular.

There can be no doubt in the world that a very durable and excellent pavement can be formed of rudely wrought eighteen-inch cubes of hard stone, with the upper surfaces roughened, and the whole laid with merely common precaution as an ordinary brick trottoir. Where this experiment has been tried, it has met with the fullest success. The objections are, first, its cost, which, if the proper stone be employed, is very great; and secondly, the street din, which it does not obviate to a sufficient extent. The former objection is scarcely one at all, where funds are at command, for in the end it is infinitely the cheapest pavement which can be contrived by man;