while the opposite shore, inhabited by the Kalmucs, affords at least some small willows scattered here and there. The inhabitants use them together with their roots, when dried, for firewood.

As the aquatic fowl delight most in the places where rivers disembogue themselves, because they generally abound in reeds and rushes, there are various remarkable species of them near Verchnoi Kurman, where the Kurman falls into the Don, among which we may distinguish the following: the spoon-bill, platea leucopodia; his membraneous esophagus, which be dilates at will as he gobbles his prey, sufficiently resembles the pelican's sack for giving him a great analogy with that bird. His spoon-shaped bill, which denotes him an aquatic fowl that feeds on fishes, is constructed in such a manner as to facilitate the procuring them: but the form of his toes, and his custom of nidificating in the summits of the highest trees, give him a still nearer affinity to

the heron.

The baglan, pelecanus carbo, which is the true cormorant, swims in troops on the waters of this country. When he has a mind to feed, he extends his wings, which are then four feet and a half from one extremity to the other, and, by the motion he gives them, makes a noise that may be heard to a considerable distance. As soon as he sees a fish coming up to the surface, he strikes on him immediately, dilates the skin that unites the two parts of his under-jaw, and swallows down his prey. These birds make their nests in companies in the trees, so that it is no extraordinary thing to find five or six of their nests in one single tree. They construct them of twigs and roots, and make them very spacious. The cormorant swims with incredible swiftness, and flies uncommonly high. These parts likewise abound in numbers of the various sorts of the heron genus, the ardea nivea, the ardea castunea, the ardea ferrugineu, the firecoloured curlew, numenius igneus, and the green curlew, numenius viridis.

It is a certain fact that all the kinds of birds we have mentioned arrive in these parts every Spring, and return in Autumn, over the Black-sea, into more Southern climes. We have every reason to imagine that they go and take up their abode in Egypt, GENT. MAG. May, 1815.

Arabia, Greece, or some other province situated in those latitudes. That at both these seasons they take their route by the way of Azoff, is a truth founded on so long an experience of the Kosacs, that there remains no room to doubt it. But what can be the reason for their never going up the Don higher than to a small distance from its mouth? Whence is it that we see other herons, other water- fowl, other wood-cocks, other blackbirds, &c. towards the source of the Don, at two thousand versts distance from this mouth, which pass here in the Spring and Autumn; part of whom remain, while the other part does not at all appear during the whole Summer? How happens it that the former dare not venture farther? The aquatic birds would every where meet with fish and worms, as the thrushes and the other granivorous species would find the same sort of grain. Places where rushes grow are as plenty, the mouths of rivers are as numerous, in the upper part of the Don as in the lower. The length of the way can by no means be admitted here as of any consideration. What journeys does the stork not take in Spring, though she might more easily find subsistence in her own neighbourhood? The pelican, which frequents the lakes near Pavlofsk, is never visible here; and yet he would find these waters of the same nature with those in which he delights. Might one not be tempted to infer from hence, that the instinct which leads the birds to migrate, supposes neither so much foresight nor so much reflexion as is commonly imagined; and that the choice of the places where they fix is generally accidental, or at most dependent on habit? With regard to Russia, we must observe in general, that the Don supplies it with the rare birds of the Euxine, and the Volga those of the Caspian sea.-(To be continued.)

will perhaps be no objection to your inserting it. B. N.

"The County of Dorset has been long celebrated for its Roman aud Saxon Antiquities; and its Military Roads, Stations, and Monastic Re mains, have been again and again explored and described. It has also considerable claim to the notice of the Antiquary, on account of the traces it contains of our British an

cestors. The Downs have certainly been the scene of the mysterious rites of the Druids, and, perhaps, of their last struggle with the Romans in this part of Britain. Besides the two small Temples and other Druidical reliques described by Mr. Hutchins, near Winterbourne Abbas, the remains of a similar Temple and Crom. lech have been lately noticed in the same neighbourhood by the gentle men who have been appointed by the Board of Ordnance to survey, and make a map of the county. They are situated upon a level plain, on the summit of the lofty eminence between Kingston Russel and Gorwell, having the deep vale watered by the river Bride to the North and North-west, and Gorwell farm, in the parish of Litton, in the vale to the South. The Roman camp at Abbotsbury is upon the opposite hill to the South, and completely overlooks the whole plain, the deep valley beneath it, and the surrounding country to the West and North-west, as far as Eggardon camp.

The site of the Druidical Circle or Temple is only a few yards from the South-eastern extremity of Kingston Farm, and immediately above Gorwell-house. This Farm or hamlet appears to take its name from the fine piece of water which runs at the foot of the hill near the house, and glides through a deep sequestered valley (whose almost precipitous sides are still mantled with woods), till it falls into the Bride*. This temple, though little now remains except the mere bases of the upright stones, was of greater extent than any hitherto noticed in the county. One stone

May not the spring which gives name to the vale South of the Temple derive its name from the bloody sacrifices of the Druids, or some unrecorded cruelties of the successful enemies? and its sister stream, the Bride, or Brede, from the same word which has given nanie to the whole Island?

only, and that in a very mutilated state, is at present standing: the rest have been all thrown down, evidently with design, and broken to pieces. The fragments which remain, form a circle of between seventy and eighty feet diameter, and appear nearly as There represented in the Plate. are to traces of an exterior circle. Two or three large stones, which lie at a little distance, have evidently rolled to their present situation since the destruction of the Temple. The entrance was probably on the East side, and (if a conjecture may be made after the lapse of so many ages, from the stones which still be upon the ground partly covered with turf) we may suppose that it was formed by two uprights and an impost. The stones consist of very close and solid masses of conglutinated flints, of the

same nature and texture with the

craggs which project from the side of the hills above the town of Abbotsbury. The dimensions, as given be low, being merely taken with a riding-stick, cannot be perfectly accurate, but are sufficiently so for a general description:

A 1. An upright stone, five feet high, about two thick.

A 2. A smaller stone, four feet long, one foot and a half thick, lying by the former, from the top of which it was probably broken off.

B1. B 2. B 3. Three stones thrown down, and partly buried in the ground.— B 1. about eight feet long and three broad in the widest part.-B 2. four feet and a half by three feet; they are about one foot and a half above ground.B 3. is nearly covered by the turf.These are probably fragments of the same upright.

C. about one foot above ground; four feet and a half by three and a half of the surface of the stone appear above ground.

D. about one foot above ground; surface four feet and a half by three and a half.

E. about one foot and a half above ground; six feet and a half long, three broad.

F. about five feet long, four broad, nearly buried,

G. but little above the turf. This is probably only a fragment broken from F or H.

H. seven feet and a half long, two feet and a half broad.

K. large fragments, partly covered with turf. Probably the entrance. L. L. L. fragments partly buried.

Upon

Upon the same plain, nearly opposite to what we may suppose to have been the entrance of the Temple, and only a short distance from it, are several other large rude stones, which appear to be the remains of a Cromlech, or Kistvaen. From their situa tion we may reasonably conjecture that they were originally an appendage to the Temple; and perhaps an altar upon which the Druids consumed their bloody and inhuman sacrifices. These stones, which are known by the name of The Grey Mare and her Colts, are upon an oblong Barrow in a field near Gorwell farm; and command a fine view of Abbotsbury encampment to the West, and beyond that of the sea and the bold cliffs on the coast of Dorset and Devon as far as the eye can reach. The view of the sea to the East and the South is intercepted by Blackdown and Abbotsbury hills. The Cromlech is distant from the Druidical Circle about a quarter of a mile, and perhaps formed the termination of an avenue leading to the East entrance of the Temple.

A. B. C. D. Stones which formed the East end of an oblong Barrow.-A. B. are still standing, about seven feet high, six broad, and one a half thick.-D. is about the same dimensions, but has been thrown down.-C. appears to have been the base of another stone, which stood in the same line, or of the one now lying upon the ground.

E. a stone about two feet high, a little West of the former, probably one of the supporters of the lower side of the impost.

F. a large stone lying upon the Barrow, probably a part of the flat stone which formed the top of the Cromlech, of an irregular shape, and appears to have been designedly broken to pieces.

G. an oblong Barrow, which rises with a gradual ascent from West to East, so as to form au easy ascent to the summit of the Cromlech.

A hedge passes over the lowest or West end of the Barrow, which is overgrown with thorns. These stones, like those in the Druidical Circle near it, consist of flints conglutinated with a kind of stone of very hard and close texture. They appear as if they had been originally chipped into form for the purpose they might be designed for, with a mason's hammer; but are of too hard a nature, to have been wrought with an edged tool.

The peculiar fitness of the situation for the purposes of Druidical worship

and superstition; the extensive horizon, and elevated plain (for astronomical observations), surrounded by deep and almost impervious valleys abounding with their favourite oak, may lead us to suppose that this place was of considerable note among the Druids; though it might not, like Stonehenge, or Avebary, be metropolitan, or of the first rank. The number of Barrows (undoubtedly the work of a settled people) dispersed on all sides over the surrounding downs, and the strong Roman camps

in

the neighbourhood, tend to strengthen this conjecture. The Barrows are now well known to be British, and are supposed to be family burying-places; the different groupes being appropriated to different families, and each Barrow to some particular individual, or branch of the family. They are more numerous upon these downs than in any other part of the West of England, except in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge and Avebury. May we not therefore sup pose that these groupes of Barrows, both here and in Wilts, owe their origin to the same cause? the vicinity of the downs to a favourite seat of Druidical worship, and to that desire which many (particularly uncivilized) people sometimes show, to have their mortal remains deposited near some sacred spot or temple? If we suppose (what the nature of the country, which bears a strong resemblance to some parts of Wales, might lead us to believe) that this was a seat of the Druids, and perhaps one of those strong situations or fastnesses to which they retired upon the successes of the Romans, we have a probable reason for the erection of so many camps within a short distance of each other. The camps at Eggardon, Abbotsbury, Maiden Castle, and Kingston, all within a short distance of Gorwell, are so situated as to cut off all communication either by sea or land, and might be intended to overawe the Britons, to drive them from their strong retreat, and suppress their superstitious rites. Coins of Vespasian have been frequently found in this neighbourhood. We may therefore probably fix the destruction of these Monuments of our British aucestors, the erection of these strong camps, and the final submission of this part of the Island to the Roman

eagle,