The history of the island of Minorca / By John Armstrong.

  • John Armstrong Jr.
Date:
1752
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the island of Minorca / By John Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this Day at as high a Pitch as that of our Fore-Fathers could ever be raifed to. I have treated at large, in my fecond Let¬ ter, of the Method of Building in Ufe a- mong thefe People; to which I have only to add in this Place, that in preparing the Cantoon-Stone, the Mafon cuts a Notch in the upper and lower Sides, and in both the Ends, of every Stone, that the Guyifh may enter, and form a Cord, as it were, of the Bignefs of one's Finger, to bind all to¬ gether. The Arches of their Doors are firongly built, the VouJJ'oirsy or Arch-Stones, being four or five Feet long, and fometimes more. I have mentioned * the Graves that have been cut in the Rock without the Walls of Ciudadella ; and thefe I have examined, with a View of fatisfying myfelf, whether the the Race of Men, that lived many Ages be¬ fore us, were of a larger Stature, than thofe with which the World is at prefent peopled. The Refult of my Searches here was no way favourable to the Opinion of certain Phi- lofophers, who fancied the human Body to be con flan tly degenerating in Size, and likely to end at laft in a Race of Pigmies. Thefe Graves are no longer than is neceffary for the prelent Generation, few of them ex¬ tending to fix Feet, and none exceeding that; but —m-— -:-rl
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