NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 65 



being pleated all round was tied with a belt below the breast ; 

 the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermixed 

 with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a 

 piece of plate about eight inches long, and three in breadth, 

 curiously engraven, the end of which was adorned with fine 

 stones or pieces of red coral." Mr Gray exhibited a small piece 

 of pink coral perforated, which he had found while digging into 

 one of the mounds in the island of South Uist, and mentioned 

 that this article of ornament, taken in connection with the bronze 

 brooch found in one of the Benbecula heaps by Captain Feilden, 

 or even with bone bodkins, or other articles of bone ornamented 

 with carving, excited at least a suspicion that these Hebridean 

 mounds might not be of a greater age than two or three hundred 

 years. 



II. — Notes on the discovery of an Ancient Canoe on the farm of 

 Littlehill, C adder Moor, near Kirkintilloch, the 'property of Sir 

 William Stirling Maxwell, Bart. Illustrated by drawings. By 

 Mr James S. Dixon. 



The position in which this curious relic of antiquity was lying, 



indicated that it had been stranded or hauled up on the beach, the 



stern being uppjermost, and slightly protruding above the surface. 



The workpeople about the farm imagined it was the stump of a 



tree, and so it was rather damaged in the process of removal, until 



its real nature was discovered. The dimensions are — length, 



thirteen feet ; breadth, from one foot nine inches near the taper at 



the bow, to two feet five inches at the stern. There are .two 



detached pieces of wood or ribs, formed of the bent branch of an 



oak ; these have circular holes drilled or burned through them, 



which appear to correspond with similar holes in the bottom of 



the canoe. At the stern there is a slight groove, into which a 



board or piece of wood had probably been inserted, and held in its 



place by similar grooves in the sides. The canoe has been hewn 



or burned from the trunk of an oak tree, with the bark adhering 



to the outside. Cadder Moor, where this canoe was found, is of 



considerable extent, and is a nearly level peat moss. Some time 



ago an attempt was made to bore there for minerals, which resulted 



in failure, as, after cutting through the peat to a depth of twenty 



feet, the workmen found it to be floating on the top of fluid mud 

 vol. II. E 



