entrance towards the altar-stone, and one on the right. The last mentioned trilithon[1] is now levelled with the ground. It fell outwards, nearly in a western direction, the impost in its fall striking against one of the stones of the outer circle, which, however, has not been thereby driven very considerably out of its perpendicularity. The lower ends of the two uprights, or supporters, being now exposed to view, we are enabled to ascertain the form into which they were hewn. They are not right-angled, but bevilled off in such a manner that the stone which stood nearest to the upper part of the adytum is 22 feet in length on one side, and not quite 20 on the other; the difference between the corresponding sides of the fellow-supporter is still greater, one being as much as 23, and the other scarcely 19 feet, in length. The breadth of each is (at a medium) 7 feet 9 inches, and the thickness 3 feet. The impost, which is a perfect parallelopipedon, measures 16 feet in length, 4 feet 6 inches in breadth, and 2 feet 6 inches in thickness.
Now, a cubic inch of the substance[2] of which the above stones are composed, weighing, according to my experiments, 1 ounce 6 pennyweights, the ponderosity of the entire trilithon will be found to be nearly 70 tons. The impost alone is considerably more than 11 tons in weight. This stone, which was projected about 2 feet beyond the supporters, made an impression in the ground to the depth of seven inches, or more; it was arrested in its tendency to roll by the stone it struck whilst falling. The supporters, of course,
- ↑ Marked ♄ in Smith's Choir-Gaur. This trilithon might, with great propriety, be called the western, as no one of the others stood more nearly west of the center of the structure.
- ↑ This is a siliceous grit, of rather a loose texture, and of a dull whitish colour, with veins of brown, which seem to be occasioned by the oxydation of the iron contained in it. All the stones of the great oval, and most of those of the outer circle, consist of this species of rock.
