t of a tumulus containing
but two or three interments, but of a perfect cemetery, with three
distinct layers of burials of men, women, and children. The drift
sand that is so extensive in this part of Cornwall rose some 8 to 10
feet above the graves, but when the original hardly compressed sand
was reached, the great slates with which the kists were carefully
formed were often not more than 2 feet below this surface." Dr. Beddoe
pronounced the remains to be neolithic, and the persons here interred
were of a dolichocephalic or long-skulled race--sometimes known as the
long barrow-builders, who generally buried their dead without
cremation. There were some tiny kists for children, but a great number
of the bodies had been buried uncoffined. The district had afforded
earlier similar traces of pre-Roman interment, but nothing on so large
a scale as this. Although a great deal of excavation has gone on
since, and there is a small museum erected close by to contain the
more striking finds, much more may yet be done and other secrets be
revealed. It is not quite certain yet where the persons lived whose
bones have thus been uncovered to the gaze of a late generation of
sight-seers, but it is supposed that their habitations must have been
near this site. They were, of course, in a higher state of
civilisation than mere cave-dwellers, but their huts may have been of
perishable wattle, or they may have come from some of the hut-circles
of the Bodmin Moors. The remains, like those around St. Piran's,
bespeak a somewhat dense population. As Harlyn Bay has become popular
for picnic parties from Padstow and elsewhere, this old necropolis
often resounds with laughter and merry-making; but in winter and in
rough weather it is left to its own solemnity. A spirit of awe broods
above it; we remember the words of Ezekiel: "The hand of the Lord was
upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down
in the midst of the valley which was full of bones."

Meeting the ocean westward of Harlyn is Trevose Head, with its
lighthouse and coastguard station. The headland rises to nearly 250
feet, and its light is sorely needed, the coast, with its outlying
masses of crag, being a deadly peril to navigation. The views to be
obtained here are of exceptional grandeur, and the lighthouse-keepers,
though far less lonely than on many similar stations, generally
welcome a visit.

[Illustration: TREVOSE LIGHTHOUSE.

_Photo by Alex. Old