86 _ A GALLoway STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 
traced; but the timber was dark-brown, moist, and _ stringy. 
The greater amount of air and the less amount of moisture in 
this zone account for the difference in the condition. At a still 
higher level the same twigs were visible, but the remains were in 
a different state of decomposition. The decayed matter re- 
sembled soft, moist, brownish-black soot mixed with sand, and 
was in contrast with the surrounding lighter coloured sandy soil. 
It would not have been recognised as the remains of much 
decayed timber unless the lines of the branches had been traced 
continuously from the lower levels. The rotundity of the twigs 
and their forking at some places were also useful clues in the 
identification. In the still higher stratum, and in channels which 
were observed rising upwards in the same lines as the remains 
just mentioned, faint traces of slightly dark-coloured sand were 
detected, and this was considered to be the vestiges of the 
branches which had thus been traced from point to point through 
the various levels. It was the detection of well-preserved wood 
in the lowest zone which led to the recognition of the identical 
branches, though in different conditions, at the higher levels. 
It is remarkable that these branches had been placed upside 
down, a position in which the logs forming the under structure 
were also found. It is conjectured that the branches were 
remains of basket or wattle-work, which may have lined the walls 
of the pit. As mentioned, horizontal twigs were not seen, but 
these may have fallen down, leaVing the vertical standards only 
as survivors. 
As the surviving twigs were not very numerous, nor set very 
closely together, it is probable that the exploration revealed a 
portion only of the wattle-work—probably the branches which 
were farthest removed from the pit and in the least disturbed 
soil. The lining facing the inside of the pit would, no doubt, 
be more exposed, and would more readily decay and fall into the 
pit after abandonment of the place. 
It was only by the careful use of a penknife that the con- 
tinuity of individual stakes was traced from one level to another, 
and the presence of the supposed wattle-work in the upper levels 
established. It seems indeed probable that the walls of the pit 
were strengthened and protected by a lining of this description 
which reached from the floor level to the pre-historic surface, if 
not higher. At the south end, but at the higher levels only, were 
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