76 A GALLOWAY STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 
out was fairly dry and was largely vegetable mould. Water and 
sludge, however, began to ooze in at this depth, chiefly from the 
layer of mixed clay and sand. Well down in the silted material 
were got many chippings, cores, and implements of flint, and of 
other stones. Traces of a bed of charcoal containing fragments 
of pottery were also observed. After carefully working out the 
wet soil, which was still largely vegetable mould and was some- 
what loosely deposited in the spaces between the logs—an 
arduous operation—the wooden substrucure revealed itself more 
clearly. It was a longish oval in plan, and measured about 7 
feet by 44 feet. Traces of what was conjectured to be wattle- 
work occurred round the edges of the oval. Taking into account 
this marginal wood-work, the dimensions were about 9 feet by 
de ACee: 
At the north-west end of the substructure piles were placed 
in two somewhat irregular concentric rings which were in contact 
with each other. The piles of the inner ring slanted inwards 
and downwards, forming a hollow inverted cone. At the 
opposite end the piles occupied a somewhat circular space, but 
were upright. Connecting these two sets of circularly disposed 
piles were somewhat irregular parallel rows of logs. These 
pieces of timber, except at the periphery of the structure where 
they were perpendicularly set, had a bias inwards and down- 
wards and in several cases towards the north-west end. The 
number of piles used was 72. Traces of what was thought to 
have been an entrance passage on the east side were observed. 
Tue EXCAVATION OF SITE No. 5. 
The excavation of Site No. 5 revealed features practically 
identical with those of Site No. 3, and strata of the subsoils 
were similar, but the traces of supposed flooring and wattle-work 
were indistinct. Several implements of stone and pieces of wood 
charcoal were recovered, but no vestiges of pottery were seen. 
At a depth of 7 feet moisture began to accumulate, and there 
was revealed a longish oval wooden substructure about 7? feet 
by 44 feet. The piles comprising the structure were in all 
respects similar to those found at Site No. 3, but were less tightly 
set together. At the north-west end they were disposed in a 
roughly circular manner in two concentric rings, the outer ring 
consisting of 15 and the inner ring of 12 stakes. The piles of 
