208 Transactions. 



old wall, which was said to have stood upwards ot two hundred 

 years, and the hammer here described was found embedded in it. 

 The hammer is of whinstone, and measures llf inches in length, 

 by 4i inches across the widest part at the butt end, tapering to a 

 point at the other, and is 2^ inches in thickness. A haft-hole has 

 been perforated through the flat face at about 3 inches from the 

 butt end. 



A hammer of greenstone, 10 inches in length, by 4^- inches in 

 breadth and 3 inches in thickness, was found at Kirk of Dunscore, 

 and presented to the National Museum in 1827. It is a finely- 

 made specimen, with a broad rounded butt gradually tapering to a 

 sharp cutting edge at the other extremity. It weighs Qh lbs. The 

 haft-hole is 2 inches in diameter on the outside, narrowing to If 

 inch in the middle of the thickness. 



The third and last specimen is of whinstone, 7h inches in 

 length, by 3 inches in breadth and 2f inches in thickness, and is 

 unsymmetrical in form. The haft-hole is 2 inches in diameter on 

 the outside, narrowing to one inch in the middle of the thickness. 



Several fine specimens of these implements are in the collec- 

 tion of the late Dr Grierson at Thornhill, and have been briefly 

 described by me in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiijuaries of 

 Scotland, Vol. X. (New Series), pp. 374, 375. 



A large and characteristic specimen of this type of implement 

 was found on the site of a lake dwelling in the Loch of Friars' 

 Carse, and is now in the possession of the proprietor of the place. 

 It is of hard whinstone, 10 inches in length, by 5 inches in greatest 

 breadth and nearly 3 inches in thickness, and has been several 

 times figured.* 



It is an interesting fact in archa3ol(;gy that this type of 

 implement is much more common in the south than in the north 

 of Scotland. Ayr, Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries are the 

 four shires in which they are found in greatest number. 



In the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art there is a fine 

 specimen of a hammer of a type peculiar to Shetland and the 

 extreme north of Scotland. It is said to have been found in a 

 wall at Dumfries, and is the largest specimen of the type known to 

 me to have been found in Scotland. It measures 5 inches in 



* Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. IV., New 

 Series, p. 76 ; Munro, Scottish Lake Dwellings, p. 1,56, and Lake Dwellings of 

 Europe, [>. 440 ; Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Tirnes, Second Series, p. 317. 



