218 _ Mr. Copland’s Account of 
and other buildings neceffary for the improvement 
of their lands. About the middle of the Cairn, 
and on a level with, or a little elevated above, the 
earth’s furface, there are always feveral thin flat ftones 
laid horizontally in a circular form, with their edges 
clofe applied together, without any cement, upon 
which are generally found entire bones, their frag- 
ments, or reddifh coloured earth, like afhes, and 
fometimes entire urns, patere, or clay veffels, 
flightly burnt, turned with their mouths down, over ° 
afhes or fragments of bones, that appear to have _ 
been fubjected to the action of fire. The heads of 
fpears and arrows, both of brafs and iron, with 
large rings* of thefe metals, have, at times, been 
met with. ‘Thefe urns or patere are feldom quite 
entire ; they, and the afhes or fragments of bones, 
are ‘generally furrounded by flat ftones, fo laid, 
without any cement, as to form niches about one 
foot and a half long, by ten or twelve inches broad, 
and from twelve to fourteen inches deep. ~ But 
the fize of thefe divifions varies greatly. In fome 
inftances, they are more than three feet long by 
two broad, in which the bones are always found 
‘more entire; but in others they are very fmall, 
when they are found to contain no fragments of 
bones, but only a little red coloured earth, like 
afhes ; 
_ .™ Thefe rings were of a fize that would have fuited the 
ends of their {pears. ; 
