80 A GALLOWAY STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 
—hblack mud and wet vegetable mould with an abundance of 
short lengths of small twigs. The outer surfaces of the logs. 
round the periphery of the structure were in contact with the stiff 
blue clay and the mixture of sand and clay, which gave a steady 
support. These outside piles were nearly always perpendicular, 
except in the case of the west side of Site No. 1. The inner 
piles, on the other hand, were as a rule lying at an angle. At 
some places the structures were strengthened by running from. 
the edge inwards rows of closely jammed piles, as at the south- 
east corner of Site No. 3. The result of this mode of construc- 
tion would be a basis for a dry, solid, secure, but somewhat: 
hollow flooring. 
All the wood was round timber, no piece having been split,. 
squared, or mortised—the sites thus differing from most other 
places from which anciently cut timber has been recorded. It 
was not observed that any charring of the wood had taken place 
before or after the preparation of the logs. The expedient of 
carbonising the outside of logs to assist the work of dressing 
them was presumably not practised, the cutting tool alone having 
been relied upon. 
The logs which were allowed to be exposed to the air warped’ 
and cracked in the course of a few hours. Ten of them from 
Sites 1 and 3 were placed in water immediately after they had 
been dug out, and will be kept in a solution of alum and water 
until sufficiently “ filled ’’ to be able to retain their original shape: 
in a dry environment. 
By the favour of Professor Bayley Balfour, Mr H. F. Tagg, 
Museum Assistant in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, has: 
kindly examined some of the logs, and reports that 
“Portions of seventeen separate logs have been examined, 
and of these seven prove to be birch, five are alder, and three 
are hazel. One of the pieces of wood submitted is either poplar 
or willow, I am not able to say which, and one small piece is: 
oak. One is led to conclude that birch and alder were the 
timbers chiefly used in the formation of the pile-structure. 
“Fungi and other putrefactive organisms have caused the 
partial dissolution of the wood elements, and this disintegration 
unfortunately renders it impossible to make deductions as to the 
time of year in which the timbers were felled.” 
The smoothness of the cut surfaces of the piles shows that 
