48 Transactions. 



two cups witliin the circumference of one ring. The larger ring 

 measures two feet across in one direction and one foot eight 

 inches in the other. The cups are each three inches across, and 

 the grooves respectively three and five inches long.* 



The ground all about these Balmae outhouses is very rocky. 

 Large spaces of rock are exposed, and on almost all of them, 

 there are not only weather-worn ovals and narrower holes, but 

 faint traces of artificial handiwork, besides the distinct design 

 just described and those I am about to refer to. In one large 

 flat rock are two large and deep cavities, measuring about 1 0^ in. 

 by 8 in. in diameter, and respectively 6 in. and 5 in. deep. They 

 are perfectly spherical at about two inches below the surface ;. 

 above that line their sliarpness of edge loses itself in a lip, and 

 the lip gradually slopes up to the actual surface of the rock. 

 They may have been, originally, grinding basins, and in the 

 course of thousands of years (1) have become smoothed away into 

 their present oval form. Or they may, originally, have been the 

 beds of large pebbles, and thereafter worked upon by the flint or 

 bronze tools of our Archaic sculptors. On the rock nearest these, 

 some twelve or fifteen feet to the east, there are numerous round 

 su-spiciously artificial-looking hollows, very shallow, but very 

 regular, which lie in lines along its surface, running north-east 

 and south-west, and evidently a continuation of similar cups to 

 be seen in smaller numbers on another exposed piece of the same 

 rock. The space between the two now exposed rocks is quite 

 turfed over, yet not so deeply as to prevent our striking the rock 

 below with a long-handled spud. We counted at least fifty of 

 these cup-marks ; and since my first visit, rings, of the usual type, 

 have been observed. Though there may be a reasonable doubt 

 as to the origin of these cavities, there can be none as to the 

 design and accuracy displayed in the group of petroglyphs pre- 

 sently to come under our notice — the last important typical group 

 of this district. 



On the rather steeply sloping surface of a very weathered and 

 f^laciated mass of whinstone in situ — some 100 yards or so south- 

 west of Balmae — are two sets of concentric rings, one having five 

 rings and an extreme diameter of 24 in., with central cup of 1^ 

 in., being in no way more remarkable than others of the same 



* At Little Balmae Mr Hornel has found a very similar sculpturing — 

 two rings within eacli other, but still more irregular than those described 

 above, and irithout cup or ijroovc. Measurement of outer ring, 18 in. by 

 17 in. at widest point ; of inner ring, 13 in. by 10 in. 



