much care, in what is called, in the ancient Cornish language, kist-vaen, or a chest of stone. These kist-vaens are composed of several pieces of slate stone, placed on their edges, so as to form a kist or cell, and differ from the cromlêh in having no horizontal or covering-stone. The kist-vaens are believed to be the most ancient British sepulchres in England, and have been found in various parts of the country. They are sometimes covered over with stones, when they are called cairns, instances of which we have at Lanyon and Molfra, in the parish of Maderne in Cornwall, and in Berkshire, near the track of the ancient ridgeway, in the vicinity of the White Horse Hill; and sometimes, instead of stones, they are covered by a heap or mound of earth, when they are called barrows, a singular instance of which is to be seen in what is called the Long Barrow, at Stony Littleton, in Somersetshire.

In the case of Perranzabuloe the kist-vaens are immersed in the sand, which has had the effect of preserving their contents in a singularly perfect manner; for the bones, and especially the teeth, are as entire as when they were first interred— possibly many hundred years before the arrival of Piranus.

Close to the site of the second Church stands erect a most venerable, perforated granite Cross.

The Cross is formed, after the rudest mode, by three holes which perforate, and a fourth cut only a little way into the rounded head of what was commonly by the Cornish denominated "Men Skryfd," or an inscribed stone; for it evidently has borne an inscription, but in what character it is now impossible to decypher. It measures about thirteen feet in height, four of which are buried in the sand.

This rude memorial of early Christian piety, in all likelihood, is as ancient as the time of Piranus himself, and may have originally been erected. near the first Church, and removed to its present situation, when the second Church was built, about A.D. 1100. Its form would lead us to suppose that it was once a heathen monument, British or Roman, afterwards converted to a Christian purpose.

It has already been mentioned in the introductory chapter, that under the altar were discovered three skeletons, having their feet turned towards the East; but what is very remarkable, the skulls of all three were found deposited between the legs of the female.

In describing the sterility of the surrounding sandhills, the author has represented them as totally destitute of verdure; he begs to qualify, in some respects, this statement, as they are here and there covered with a very stunted and coarse herbage, which affords a scanty food for the rabbits which have burrowed in great numbers among the sandhills. The general barrenness, however, of the whole district, is very striking, as will appear from the following list of the only plants which the writer could discover on the Towans or sandhills.

Geranium Maritimum (Sea Cranesbill), in abundance.

Hyoscyamus Niger (Common Henbane), a solitary plant.

Cynoglossum Officinale (Great Houndstongue), in abundance.

Euphorbia Paralios (Sea Spurge), a single plant. Calamagrostis arenaria (Sea Matweed).

This last-mentioned plant is the most abundant of all, and proves of essential service in checking the roving disposition of the sand. It possesses the singular property of accommodating its growth to the depth of sand in which it grows, by which means its tough and tortuous roots and stems serve the useful purpose of binding the sandhills together. The Dutch have long profited by their knowledge of this property, and therefore encourage the growth of it with great success on their sea walls, and the banks of their canals. According to Woodward, it is applied to the same purpose on the flat coast of Norfolk, where as soon as it takes root a sandhill gathers around it.

The inhabitants of Newborough, in Anglesea, maintain themselves chiefly by manufacturing it into mats and ropes, to which use it is also applied by the people of Perranzabuloe, who would do well were they more generally to attend to its cultivation, as the most effectual barrier yet known against the further "spoiling and marring of their lands," by the drifting sand.

So highly was the Calamagrostis prized on this very account, as long ago as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that her Majesty, under very severe penalties, prohibited its extirpation; and by the stat. 15 Geo. II. c. 33, the like prohibition was extended to the cutting of it on the sandhills, on the north western coasts of England.