136 



Napier's dock. They were lying nearly seveuteeu feet below the 

 surface, in the finely laminated sand. 



" The first of tliis group is now in the Hall of the Society of Anti- 

 quaries, Edinburgh. The second, which is a remarkably fine specimen 

 and nearly entire, is in Principal Macfarlane's garden, CoUege, Glasgow. 

 The third was much damaged by the work-people. It lay for some 

 time in the court yard of the Clyde Trustees. One very curious fact 

 may be remarked in connection with this boat. It had a plug of cork. 

 Mr. Bremner, the Clyde River Engineer, drew it out himseK, and gave 

 it to me. There can be no doubt therefore of the identity. But where 

 did the natives get cork, assuming that the deposition took place 

 before the arrival of the Romans ? I have had the question discussed 

 in the Antiquarian Society, but without any satisfactory result. Spain 

 being tlie nearest cork-gro\\-ing country — and this boat belonging to the 

 remote west side of the island — with many tribes intervening, in a state 

 of constant hostility, there is a great difficulty in accounting for such a 

 continental production as this cork plug being in possession of the rude 

 Damuii, who inhabited this section of Scotland. The fourth Springfield 

 canoe, is the smallest and seemingly the most primitive of the group. 

 It is in the Museum of Anderson's University, Glasgow." 



Shortly after a ninth canoe was exhumed. It is preserved in the 

 Stirling Library, Glasgow. The discovery of two more was recorded in 

 the " Northern Notes and Queries," in May, 1859, and in August of 

 the same year three more were got, making fifteen in all. Two of those 

 last discovered are by far the most interesting. 



"The biggest is rather imposing." (I am quoting Mr. Buchanan 

 again.) " From her considerable size, she was capable of containing a 

 number of men, and, it is by no means improbable, was a war-canoe of 

 the tribe. She is not at aU crank, but broad and substantial ; measuring 

 fourteen feet in length, four feet one inch broad, and in depth one foot 

 eleven inches. There are some curious details about this canoe worth 

 recording. She is hollowed out of what must have been a most mag- 

 nificent oak tree, an imposing specimen of the ancient monarchs of that 

 primeval forest which then overshadowed all this part of the country. 

 This gigantic tree has been very cleanly sawn through at the thickest 

 place. Sharp tools must have been employed, for the interior is very 

 smoothly cut, and the whole boat remarkably well executed. This 

 canoe has a well shaped prow, not a mere cobble-like snout, as in other 

 specimens ; the stern has been cut open, and has the usual thin oaken 

 board inserted in vertical grooves down the sides, and fixed in a hori- 

 zontal one across the bottom, to keep it firm. This board remains quite 



