instances from Japan, where sun-worship is actually practiced. It is obvious that Stonehenge might have been oriented in connection with a star, and in fact it was suggested in the Astronomical Register that Sirius was the star in question, and that in 977 B. c. it rose exactly above the Friar's Heel, a fact which the writer supposed would fix the date of that monument.

Moreover, Piazzi Smith and Sir Norman Lockyer have both of them endeavoured to show that the Pyramids were oriented in respect of certain stars, and Mr. Penrose has advanced similar theories with regard to the orientation of some of the Greek temples.

However, the sun in the case of Stonehenge seems a more likely object than any star, having regard to what has been said as to its rising at the summer solstice; and if Sir Norman Lockyer's view that it is a solar temple is correct, we may also perhaps accept his further statement that astronomical data point to its having been erected somewhere about 1,700 years B. C., a date which very closely approximates to that arrived at by Professor Gowland by quite a different line of argument.

CARNAC

T. CATO WORSFOLD

HE Morbihan district, situated in the extreme west of

THE

Brittany, consists principally of numerous small islands, equalling, it is said, the number of days in the year, which justify the name of archipelago. Here, too, we have the Bay of Quiberon, where the great sea-battle between the fleet of the Veneti, the hardy race who inhabited these regions, and Cæsar's triremes took place: noteworthy for the fact that the ships of the former were furnished with leather sails.

According to tradition, this people, driven from their home by the master-hand of Imperial Rome, sailed away to the Mediterranean, where, struck by the similarity of the group of islands they found there to those on which they had dwelt for ages past, they settled again, and created that nation which, as the Venetians, at one time, was supreme upon the sea.

Carnac is the name of a district having a population of 3,000 inhabitants, dwelling in about ninety hamlets, and the name is also given to a townlet having some 1,500 residents in and about it.

Just outside the town of Carnac is a very large tumulus called Mont St. Michel, which, about 500 feet high, forms

an interesting and excellent specimen of the varied objects of interest which present themselves to the inquiring mind of the archeologist in every direction.

A curious custom obtains at the period of the summer solstice every year in connection with this tumulus, for on the top of it a huge bonfire is lighted at eventide, which is the signal for others to be kindled on other prominent eminences in the district for a distance of quite twenty or thirty miles; and about the same time fires are also lighted in the farmyards and the animals made to pass through the smoke this being considered a charm against disease and illness, which would otherwise fall to their lot during the coming year. These fires are called in the Carnac Breton patois "Tan Heol "-The Fire of the Sun,-and also, but obviously by a later introduction, "Tan Sant Jan "-The Fire of St. John.

Locmariaquer (i. e., "the place of the Virgin Mary ") is a poor village situated some eight miles from Carnac, the country around consisting of a wild heathland, if possible more arid, stony and sterile than the land which lies around Carnac. It is supposed to be the ancient Dariorigum of the Veneti.

About ten miles from Carnac lies the town of Auray whence excursions may be made in different directions to inspect the megalithic remains. It is in the centre of the Morbihan, the wildest part of Brittany, and King Arthur is reputed to have built the castle of Auray, of which, however, no trace can be seen now. Under its walls and just