424 
The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter from 
the Rev. T. H. Porter, accompanying the donation of a very 
large wooden vessel to the Museum of the Academy :-—“ It was 
found some months since, at a considerable depth in a peat 
bog at Gortagowan, in this parish (Desartcreat, county of 
Tyrone), the same bog in which three former wooden articles, 
which I had the pleasure of sending up to the Museum, were 
found. Itlay bottom uppermost, and was much shattered by 
the diggers in taking it out. But it is remarkable that it had 
been split in different places before it was submerged ; as is 
plain from the several slips of hard wood, with holes for pegs, 
found with it; one of which is now attached where it was ori- 
ginally puton. The poor owners must have had it along time 
in use, and must have valued it highly. A long slender pole, 
apparently of willow, or some other pliable wood, was found 
near it, but much damaged. Within it was a quantity of 
dark brown stuff, of which I have a sample; it seems to be 
merely the finer parts of the peat, filtered in by the water.” 
