36 NOTES ON A TUMULUS 
two bodies must have been buried at the same time, or at all 
events, that the bones of one could not have been placed in the 
cist only a few years ago, for then they would have been found 
lying on the surface of the loam. But here another question 
arises, when was this loam formed? It may not have existed 
previous to the first opening by Mr. Coulson, who, to obtain 
admission, broke one of the covers, and left the tumulus with a 
hollow in the centre instead of its original pyramidal top, and in 
consequence of this, water, charged with earth, may have found 
admission into the previously water-tight tomb. I fear this 
question cannot be quite settled, which is unfortunate, as the 
undoubted occurrence of two bodies in one cist is an unusual and, 
therefore, interesting circumstance. No remains of weapon, im- 
plement, or urn were discovered, although the loam was all most 
carefully examined. It may therefore be concluded that the 
chief whose burial place this was, had been interred without any 
of the usual accompaniments of a British burial. 
The bones are of a dark brown colour, and much decayed, soft, 
friable, as if eroded, and freshly exposed white surfaces of parts 
of the legs and skull adhere as forcibly to the tongue, brought 
into contact with them, as the unglazed clay of a tobacco pipe, 
showing the absence of a large portion of the gelatinous base of 
the bone. The shafts of the bones show their medullary cavities 
open here and there, the ends are perforated, like some museum 
specimens illustrative of caries, and the articular surfaces, espec- 
ially those of the knees, are very imperfect. The bones have 
been those of two skeletons, both equally decomposed, as if they 
had been interred together, and subjected to similar influences. 
One skeleton is taller than the other, but not so robustly formed. 
Both are distinctly larger in dimensions than an artificially arti- 
culated skeleton, which measures five feet seven inches. 
1. Of the taller skeleton, which may have been also the 
younger, only a few bones are before us; these are an atlas, a 
scapula, a humerus, a radius, a tibia, and a fibula, all more or 
less broken, and two or three tarsal bones. They shew no traces — 
of epiphyses, and are therefore those of a mature adult. They 
are large and strong’, indicating the male sex; the age may per- 
