to the date of their earliest use, but this stronghold of Chun was
almost certainly utilised as late as the fifth or sixth centuries, and
may have seen fighting during the days when Irish invaders, even if
they came as travelling saints, were not always welcomed. The first
and second vallum can be traced with their ditches, and there was
doubtless an inner wall. The masonry is of different character from
that cyclopean piling of boulders which was all the earlier men had
known of building. Of such cyclopean style, though it is a small
specimen, is the Chun cromlech, standing near. In the near
neighbourhood are the _Men Scryfa_ (the inscribed stone), the
_Men-an-tol_ (the holed stone), the Nine Maidens, the Lanyon Quoit,[A]
the huts of Bosporthennis, the Mulfra Quoit--all being monoliths, or
other survivals of wonderful interest, with the strange fascination of
their mystery. Cairns, barrows, sepulchral monuments, we can
understand, for death and burial are ever with us; but what was the
meaning of these circles and standing-stones--who built them, and for
what purpose? They are interpreted astronomically now--the latest,
perhaps the correct, theory. The earliest peoples who brought any
culture to these shores came from the East, and we cannot tell what
profundities of astrologic science they carried with them. It is
generally acknowledged that when the rough Teutons came they
encountered and checked a mental culture higher than their own. But we
can only conjecture dimly, and leave the controversialists to wrangle.

[A] See illustration, page 181.

On the moorland beyond Morvah rises the tor of Carn Galva, standing
stern and solitary like a little patch of Dartmoor. On the coast is
the grand sheer cliff of Bosigran, the western protection of Porthmeor
Cove, with traces of prehistoric fortification; it is a noble bluff of
granite, with a drop of 400 feet. Puffins nest in the crevices below.
A little westward are the pinnacled rocks of Rosemergy, covered with
lichens and in parts clad in ivy; the neighbouring turfy slopes are
fragrant with heather and gorse. Little streams filter their way from
the moorland to the coves, reaching the sea through hollows rich with
ferns--there are still rare ferns to be found in the more inaccessible
shelters. Just beyond is another Treryn Dinas, like that of the Logan
near St. Levan; but this Treen is better known as the Gurnard's Head.
It is a favourite show-place, winning perhaps m