Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/627

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DOLMENS IN JAPAN.
597

They are widely scattered in groups of several along the slopes of the mountains for a considerable distance; and their general appearance is not unlike the mounds of Upsala, Sweden, as represented in the frontispiece of Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times."

The structures consist of stone chambers covered by mounds of earth, communications with the chamber being by means of a long, straight, narrow passage—a typical allée couverte. The apices of the mounds are not so pointed as in the figure of Lubbock, and their slopes not so steep (see Fig. 1). They average fifteen to twenty feet in

Fig. 4.—Entrance to Chamber.

height, and fifty to seventy-five feet in diameter. The entrances to most of the chambers are partially obstructed by dirt and stone which have tumbled from the sides and roof of the entrance. The stones composing the walls of the passageway and chamber were not large. In every case, however, the roofing-stones, both of the passageway and chamber, were of very large size. In some cases the entire roof of the chamber consisted of a single stone, and in one case four huge blocks formed the roof of a passageway twenty-eight feet long (see Fig. 2).