1869.] Archieology. 511 



Inverness-shire, appear to be associated with rocks which may be 

 more or less auriferous — namely, the Lower Silurian. 



These forts have no doubt been erected against maritime in- 

 vaders. Their number and strength suggest the frequency and 

 formidable nature of such inroads, for which a motive may be found 

 in the supposition that south-eastern Sutherland and other districts 

 where such duns or bm-gs occur, were known in pre-historic times 

 to be rich in gold or other mineral treasures. 



Hence, perhaps, the connection between the copper of Sandness 

 and Mousa-burg, in Shetland ; the lead and silver of Beaufort and 

 Struidh-burg, in Inverness ; the gold of Durness and Dun-Dor- 

 nadilla, in west Sutherland ; of Uisge-dubh and Caisteal-Coille ; of 

 Allt-Smeorail with Aschoille-burg on the one side, and Coir- 

 Aoiscaig tower on the other ; and of Strath Ullie, with its chain of 

 Pictish strongholds from Dun-uaine on the coast to the wonderful 

 group of Cyclopean structures that crown Beinn-Ghriam-beg, 

 twenty-eight miles inland. 



Hence too, perhaps, the origin of the native torques and armillae 

 of beaten gold, attractive booty no doubt to the roving Norsemen, 

 " the extractors of rings " ; and hence, also, it may be, one reason 

 why the largest nugget lately found weighs only 2 oz. 17 dwts., if 

 we suppose that the gold discoverable without washing or other 

 modern appHances had been picked up by the pre-historic people. 



Mr. George Anderson lately communicated to the Geological 

 Society of Edinburgh an interesting description of Craig Phadrich, 

 a vitrified fort "near Inverness. This pre-historic fortress occupies 

 the termination of a rocky ridge (about 250 feet in height) in the 

 long chain of mountains which skirt the west of the gi-eat glen of 

 Scotland, and fronts the Orel hill of Kessock, another vitrified fort 

 on the op2)osite Eoss-shu'e coast. 



It forms the advanced beacon-station on the Moray Firth, from 

 which signals could be passed by each successive link of the chain 

 of natural telegraph-stations stretching far into the recesses of the 

 country beyond the head of the Beauly Firth^ in Koss-shire, Glen- 

 strathfarar and Strathglass, as well as in the great glen. 



Sis or seven vitrified summits are visible from Craig Phadrich, 

 and if the ordinary hill-forts, having huge ramparts of stone round 

 their tops, belong to the same period, that number might be nearly 

 doubled. Craig Phadrich stands on a hill of Old Ked Sandstone, 

 capped with a mass of hard conglomerate, with precipitous faces on 

 the north and south sides, and steep ridges of aj)proach on the east 

 and west. These approaches were guarded by two walls or embank- 

 ments — one, a very strong and high one on the summit, composed 

 of loose stones, sand, and gravel — the other about 50 feet lower 

 down the slope, less massive but much more highly vitrified. The 

 pathway up the western side is extremely narrow and tortuous, and 



