280 DESCRIPTION OF CAIRN. [May, 



any relic stowed between, which might afford some light 

 as to its formation, or by whom. We were totally unsuc- 

 cessful ; it therefore only remains for me to describe its 

 construction. 



It was a double cone, being about eight feet on the 

 axis and about the same at its greatest diameter : the 

 rough computation at the time gave about forty courses 

 of stone, varying from two to four inches, all parallel, 

 selected slabs, and some appeared too heavy for any pair 

 of our men to transport even for a few yards. These 

 stones were not similar to those in the immediate 

 vicinity, but were evidently obtained from a lower sand- 

 stone level ; how they could have been brought up to 

 this position was perplexing. The surrounding stones 



were all of large size, and would possibly afford some, 

 but none of the peculiar gritty sandstone of which the 

 upper and larger tablets were composed. The internal 

 height, excepting in the centre, was not above four feet ; 

 and the interior appeared, as each slab was removed, to 

 have been very carefully filled in with small flat stones 

 and moss, and yet no moss was to be found growing 

 near it in any direction ! It was tuarxh ///o*x, and must 



