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four pillar stones set upright at each corner. Of these the 
stone at the south-east angle has fallen. These stones, the 
highest of which is 5 feet 10 inches, and the lowest 4 feet 6 inches, 
are to this day found on the slopes of the Laggan Hill and Ben 
John in long, sometimes almost squarish, oblongs, of about seven 
feet, and form a ready material for such usage as here exampled. 
The lie of the kist cover is nearly due north and south, and the 
distance between the two end stones is, north and south, 8 feet, 
and east and west 4 feet. 
TI had fully intended to open this ancient grave, and so complete 
the present inquiry by a description of its condition and contents: 
Inclemency of weather, however, has compelled me to put aside 
an excavation which might have extended to several days. 
I must, therefore, conclude with a summary of what, in my 
judgment, are the distinguishing features of this Pre-Historic 
Colony, marking it off from other localities in Galloway. 
First noticeable is the variety of character in the relics: cairn 8, 
stone circles, kist vaens, and a moat with sculptured stones, and 
one fragment of sculptured rock. Now, in no other district of 
equal area do I know of any such variety of character. 
The High Banks district, near Kirkcudbright—though it 
possesses several forts and moats— has only small cairns, and 
no cup and ring marks on slabs or standing stones, and no out- 
standing grave such as this at Newton or at Cairnholy. 
In other places as, ¢.g., in the northern parts of the Stewartry 
and the borders of Ayr and Wigtown, where cairns are pretty 
frequent, we have as yet little or no trace of sculptured stones, 
either in cup and ring marks or crosses. 
These considerations lend colour to the probability that this 
Anwoth district once formed an important and comparatively 
thickly peopled centre—a settlement of some duration —the 
actual habitations of which have long since passed away, to be 
remembered only by the cairn and grave and cup-marked stone, 
as we see them at the present day. 
The next characteristic is the differentiation of the types of 
these remains, and the suggestion that many ages must have 
played their part in building up such a memorial. It is quite 
possible that the cairn was the earliest—as it is the most natural 
—attempt at a constructed tomb. Perhaps the stone-circle 
followed (for these, as is now pretty generally admitted by 
