sweethearts! A flint was also found, beautifully and minutely serrated at the
edge; nevertheless, it was at once evident, on opening the cairn, that the place
had already been ransacked, probably in secret, by treasure-seekers, as there is
no tradition of any excavation for scientific purposes having ever been made
here.
“On the removal of the peat-moss and heather from the ridge of the serpent’s
back, it was found that the whole length of the spine was carefully constructed
with regularly and symmetrically placed stones, at such an angle as to throw off
rain; an adjustment to which we doubtless owe the preservation, or at least the
perfection, of this most remarkable relic. To those who know how slow is the
growth of peat-moss, even in damp and undrained places, the depth to which it
has here attained, though in a dry and thoroughly exposed situation and raised
from seventeen to twenty feet above the level of the surrounding moss, tells of
many a long century of silent undisturbed growth, since the days when the
serpent’s spine was the well-worn path daily trodden by reverent feet. The spine
is, in fact, a long narrow causeway, made of large stones, set like the vertebræ of
some huge animal. They form a ridge sloping off in an angle at each side, which
is continued downwards with an arrangement of smaller stones, suggestive of
ribs.”
This strange memorial of a departed age and a vanished faith, lying in the silence
and solitude of the lonely shore of Loch Nell, recalls to mind the eloquent lines
of an American poet:[46]
“All desolate their ruins rest,
Like bark that in mid-ocean rolls,
Her name effaced, her masts o’erthrown,
And none remaining of the souls
That once sailed in her, to relate
From what far distant port she came;
Whither she sailed and what her fate,
And what her nation and her name.
But only may conjecture guess
The fancied story of this place,
And from these crumbling ruins gain
Some knowledge of the vanished race.”It must be noticed that the serpent-mound has been so disposed that the
worshipper standing at the altar would naturally look eastward, directly along the