magnificent example known as the Table des Marchands at Locmariaquer.
Perhaps the most typical structure in France is the corridor-tomb in
which the chamber is indistinguishable from the passage, and the whole
forms a long rectangular area. This is the _allée couverte_ in the
narrower sense. In the department of Oise occurs a special type of this
in which one of the end-slabs has a hole pierced in its centre and is
preceded by a small portico consisting of two uprights supporting a
roof-slab (Fig 10). A remarkable example in Brittany known as Les
Pierres Plates turns at a sharp angle in the middle, and is thus
elbow-shaped.

[Illustration: FIG. 10. _Allée couverte_, called La Pierre aux Fées,
Oise, France. (_Compte rendu du Congrès Préhistorique
de France_.)]

In the north of France the _allée_ is often merely cut out in the
surface of the ground and has no roof at all. It is sometimes paved
with slabs and divided into two partitions by an upright with a hole in
its centre. Tombs of this kind often contain from forty to eighty
skeletons, some of which are in the contracted position. The skulls are
in some cases trepanned, i.e. small round pieces of the bone have been
cut out of them; such pieces are sometimes found separate in the graves.
No objects of metal occur in these North French tombs.

There are many fine examples in Brittany of the corridor-tomb with
distinct chamber. The best known lies on the island of Gavr'inis
(Morbihan). It is covered by a tumulus nearly 200 feet in diameter. The
circular chamber, 6 feet in height, is roofed by a huge block measuring
13 feet by 10. The corridor which leads out to the edge of the mound is
40 feet in length. Twenty-two of the upright blocks used in this tomb