gone, and the bone beneath is exposed. Nevertheless; it does remain in some cases, and has been
the means of preserving these curious structures.
One such, very perfect, is on the river Erme, above
Piles Wood, on Dartmoor. Into this it is quite
possible to crawl and take refuge from a shower.
It is completely watertight, but it is not easy to find,
as it is overgrown with dense masses of heather.
Another is close to the farmhouse of Fernaker,
between Brown Willy and Rough Tor, and it has
been spared because the farmer thought it might
serve his purpose as a pig-sty or a butter-house.
This Fernaker hut is rudely quadrangular, and one
side is formed by a great block of granite rising out
of the ground five feet and nine feet long. On
this basis the house has been built and roofed
in the usual manner by five courses of overlapping
stones. The highest peak of Brown Willy is
occupied by a huge cairn that has never been
explored, owing to the expense and labour of
working into it. It probably covers some old
Cornish king. Immediately below it, some forty
feet, are two beehive huts, in very fair condition, one
eight feet in diameter, with a second, much smaller,
only four feet six inches in diameter, close to it,
opposite the door, with an entrance so small that
it probably served as a store -chamber. One huge
slab of granite, some twelve feet long and six feet
wide, forms half the roof of the larger hut; the
remainder has fallen in.
On the other side of Brown Willy, the west side, at no great distance from the source of the river Fowey,
