li 
antiquities have been collected; nor, considering the probability 
that this crannog was garrisoned and used for more than a hundred 
years, and perhaps frequently burned, need we wonder at the large 
amount of bones thrown out by the well-fed warriors, the great 
number of antiquities, or the evidences of fire so extensively exhi- 
bited in the cutting made through the remains of the crannog; 
whilst these matters all tend to confirm the truth and value of the 
Annals. 
But the matters of greatest interest in connexion with the cran- 
nogs is to ascertain the period of the first adoption of such modes 
of defence, as I suspect these crannogs existed long previous to 
1150, which is the earliest allusion to them that I have found as 
yet in the Annals ; and secondly, having now found them, and 
knowing their purpose, to make such diligent searches as shall lead 
to useful results, by the collection of many matters which would. 
naturally be brought to these water forts as places of security, and 
which, being either lost there, or thrown into the water in the ex- 
tremities of siege, or drowned with their owners in the last strug- 
gles of a warlike life, would remain hidden in the depths until now. 
My only fears are, that in many instances they have been so deeply 
covered by marl and other deposits, as to escape our means of 
search. 
In that highly interesting part of ancient Breifny traversed by 
the Junction Canal, many of these islands, as adverted to, exist; 
and we have not yet lowered the waters of some of the lakes men- 
tioned in the Annals—M‘Gauran, for instance—at the year 1512. 
I have every reason to hope, from the attention called to this 
subject, and the instructions issued, we may still enue many inte- 
resting additions to our collection. 
In conclusion, I wish to state that the Commissioners of Public 
Works request that the articles collected under their instructions, 
and now presented, should be arranged and kept according to the 
localities in which they have been found. I trust I may not be 
misunderstood as resting any part of the argument in favour of a 
geographic or local arrangement upon the influence of a donor's 
request ; the object and interest which the Academy and the Com- 
missioners (who are mostly members of the Academy) have in this 
matter cannot be otherwise than common. 
I submit that a leading principle in arranging a museum of 
antiquities like ours should be, as far as possible, to obviate re- 
