36 Antiquities feom the StewapxTry. 



Bronze Socketed Axes. — DE 3, Axe 3;| iu. by 1| in., a neat 

 specimen with raised lines on the sides. From Kihiotrie. Num- 

 ber 5, in the original entry of date 1785, is thus curiously 

 described by Mr Robert Rid dell, the donor : " Part of an ancient 

 instrument of mixed white metal resembling the small end of a 

 trumpet, found in the Loch of Carse." It is a smallish imperfect 

 axe with parallel lines by way of ornament, and the usual loop on 

 one side ; the absence of such loop being so rare that out of 

 three score specimens in the national collection there is only one 

 without the loop. Number 53, presented by Sir H. E. Maxwell, 

 is a plain, solid axe, Oy^ in. by 2\ in., from Muirfad, Kirkmabreck. 



Bro?ize Spear Heads, DG 30. — Portion of a spear head, 4 in. 

 long, from Buchan, Glen Trool, presented by John Forsyth, 1871. 

 The other specimen. No. 44, from Balmaclellan, was presented by 

 Rev. G. Murray, 1862. 



Of Bronze Dagger Blades, properly so called, thex'e is not one 

 specimen from Kirkcudbrightshire ; but a small and imperfect 

 specimen of a bronze blade is catalogued under DI 3, and its 

 original entry in Smell ie's Account of the Society of Anti([uaries 

 offering- some points of interest, I here quote it in full : " June 

 25th, 1782. By Alex. Copland, Esq. of Collieston: A jjiece of a 

 Roman sword of fine brass, with a round pin of the same metal, 

 found in Carlochau Cairn, on the top of a high hill in the lands of 

 Chappelerne, and parish of Crossmichael, in the year 1776, when 

 the remains of this cairn, once the largest iu Galloway, were 

 removed for enclosing a plantation round it. In the middle of 

 this cairn, at the bottom, was found a coffin composed of large 

 flat stones, but there were no bones in it." Now let us examine 

 this account a little in detail. Letting pass the writer's opinion 

 that Carlochan Cairn was the largest in Galloway (which from 

 actual measurements of all the cairns extant I know could not 

 have been the case), we have the statement "that in 1776 the 

 remains of this cairn wei'e removed." Tha presumption is, there- 

 fore, that previously to 1776 many of its stones had been removed, 

 probably to build dykes, the usual destination of cairns iu those 

 days of vandalism. At this date then, 1776, the bulk of the 

 remainder of the stones were removed, not, mark you, to construct 

 common field dykes, but in order to make a fence to protect the 

 young firs and beeches which were then planted. ^Vhat object 



