“Another conjecture may be offered on this subject, that probably they have been placed, as now seen, by the operation of the same causes that effected the general deluge, when the globe suffered such dreadful disruptions and convulsions as, according to the Mosaic relation, to shake the very pillars of the earth, and to break up the fountains of the great deep; the truth of this will appear obvious when we consider the nature of that powerful agent which occasioned this memorable catastrophe.”[73] The Pyramids of Mexico are termed by the learned Dr. Robinson temples and mounds of earth; and the Pyramids of Egypt have been mentioned by Bruce and other travellers as natural rocks and mounds. So that it is not extraordinary that a shipwrecked seaman, travelling on foot along the coast of China towards Canton, should call these unexplored pyramids solitary rocks. There are such mounds or rocks in Ireland. Now that country was visited in ancient times by the Phenicians, who were originally a colony of Egyptians, and who must have witnessed the construction, or perhaps even assisted in the building of the Pyramids of Egypt, by command of Joseph, or Zaphnath-paaneah; they also assisted King Solomon in building the Temple in Jerusalem. These Phenicians, then, built pyramids in Ireland, which, though a fertile island, has been subject to frequent visitations of famine. The learned traveller Kohl speaks of these erections, in his work on Ireland, as follows:— “The Moate of Lisserdowling is a round conical hill, about forty feet high, and almost five hundred feet in circumference. It stands in a plain, and is surrounded by _corn-fields_, and, being planted with trees and white-thorn bushes, presents a stately object on the naked level. On the summit the Moate was flat, with an indentation in the middle, leaving a few stones bare, that seemed to form part of some masonry concealed under the turf, by which the whole of the artificial hill was covered. “The popular tradition, I was told, assigned the moat as a dwelling-place to an ancient Irish chief of the name of Naghten O’Donnell, and a small by-road in the neighbourhood is still called, after him, Naghten’s Lane. The hill stands in high repute throughout the country, and is a favourite resort on fine afternoons, when hundreds may be seen sitting and lying on its sides; but not one of these visitors remains after dark, when the Moate of Lisserdowling, and the lane leading to it, are abandoned to the fairies, or ‘good people,’ as they are called in Ireland. Nor will anyone touch a stone or a stick on the hill, ‘unless they have had a dream,’ as my farmer expressed himself, ‘and have had a commission from the good people.’