TORRS WARREN. 39 
beds; and in Ayrshire it is much the same, with one notable 
exception, a well-made hollow flint scraper, which I found in the 
forty feet beach bed.—(See ‘‘ Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire,” p. 123.) 
No paleolithic articles have been got in the Torrs, and from 
my point of view it is not likely they will ever be found in 
Scotland, unless it be in connection with the Mammoth Bed 
under the drift. On the old ground no mud floors, so far as I 
can learn, have been detected, but a few remnants of turf walls, 
and, occasionally, but rarely, small bits of pavement laid with 
water-worn stones have been blown bare; but it does not seem to 
have been a practice for the old people to have had their 
dwellings often floored with anything of a durable nature. 
On the new ground, towards the east, there are at present 
several remnants of mud floors to be seen, but in a short time 
they will likely get blown away. We do not know, of course, how 
these floors were laid, but an old man once informed me that he 
had seen mud floors made in the following way. The tempered 
clay was rubbed over with a flat bit of wood, often dipped in 
water, till the floor was smooth and level. It was then left till it 
was perfectly dry, when its surface was soaked with the blood of a 
newly-killed pig, and he maintained that by this method a 
good and durable floor was made. 
In many places on the Mid and High Torrs, as well as on 
Clachshiant, there are great quantities of broken stones, mostly 
now covering knolls or parts which they have protected from 
being blown away, and these are often more than a hundred feet 
in diameter. Broken stones, as well as ancient articles, are also 
seen sliding down the sides of sand dunes when the sand is 
being removed by the wind. They come from the old, once 
occupied, surfaces, which have been long covered by blown sand. 
The stones may have been broken in different ways, but mostly it 
is supposed by having been heated to redness and put in water 
for the purpose of warming it. “Tea” may have been “ masked ” 
in this way, and was probably made from agrimony, rue, wood- 
avens, yarrow, mint, etc., the use of which is not yet entirely 
given up. It is not uncommon to see many of the heating stones 
with bits burst or started from their sides which no blow could 
have detached. The immense number of the stones on the Torrs 
is a sort of index pointing to a lengthened occupation of the area 
