formerly praétifed in Scotland, ~ 335 
' I was lately informed by the farmer of Kell-Blane, 
or Kirkblane. as it is more commonly though im- 
properly called, that be had made fome farther 
difcoveries at the place where the-articles of iron had 
been found, in confequence of my requeft, that he 
would be particularly attentive seins, cultivating 
that fpot. 
I went with him, tay Se by. two ‘of his 
fervants, to a fpot elevated about: four: feet above 
the ‘ground around it,’ which, except in’ this 
part, flopes gradually to Locker Mofs; and at the 
fummit of this rifing ground, I found’a hearth, 
upon which wood had been burned at a diftant 
period, there being a quantity of it charred lying 
on the furface of the till and ftone pavement ;* the 
grain of the wood was perfectly diftin@, but the 
afhes, if fuch they could be called, though nearly 
of the ufual colour, were changed to an earthy 
mould, much mixed with fand; this laft was only 
found in the middle, and moftly in the interftices 
of the ftones, as alfo below one or two of them. 
‘The hearth appeared, on thorough examination, to 
be of an elliptical form, “like a boat, the mouth 
of a fpoon, or fection of an egg-fhell: ‘being 
deepeft in the middle, and covered over with good 
earth about two feet deep; becoming gradually fhallow- 
er towards the edges, where it was one foot below the 
furface. Its dimenfions were ten feet long by fix broad 
‘ over 
* The incorruptibility of charred wood is well known, 
