Dr Hibbert's Observations on Vitrified Forts. :}()5 



forest, likewise, in David the First's reign, coveted the district 

 between the Leader and the Gala. 



Such is the list of the ancient forests of Scotland, within the 

 limits of which vitrified sites appear ; and it is in vain to look 

 for them where luxuriant woods have not subsisted. In the 

 Orkneyinga Saga, for instance, we read of numerous beacon- 

 signals having been lighted up in Orkney and Shetland ; but 

 as these islands from remote historic times have been destitute 

 of forests, no fire has been raised of sufficient intensity to leave 

 any marks of vitrification upon the mounds of stone on which 

 the inflammable materials rested. * The same remark may ap- 

 ply to some of the Western Islands- Vitrification only appears 

 where such mountain-fires have blazed as Olaus Magnus has 

 described. 



This very wooded state of Scotland, which was its peculiar 

 character during the period when its shores were the most an- 

 noyed by the predatory excursions of the Northmen, will also, 

 I trust, explain why vitrified sites should be so common in this 

 country, to the exclusion of England, where, owing to the 

 more early civilization of Saxon colonists, forest lands were 

 beginning to be thinned, and where, from motives of necessity 

 as well as convenience, the habit had commenced of using for 

 beacon-fires vessels filled with pitch, instead of unwieldy piles 

 of wood. 



Keeping, then, this ancient wooded state of Scotland steadily 

 in view, it is by no means illogical to extend rather than to 

 limit the causes which would induce our ancestors in a coun- 

 try overspread with trees, where arable land was also much 

 wanted, to allow the spoils of dense woods and thickets to be 

 kindled upon every occasion of rejoicing, of religious sacrifice, 

 or of alarm upon the approach of an invading enemy. AM 

 the ancient histories and traditions accordingly agree, that tin* 

 most extravagant use was made of forest trees on every oeoa* 



* This, my late remark, that there arc no vitrified ritea In Orkney, I 

 have about a month ago corrected by the unexpected discovery of nume- 

 rous vitrified mounds at Elsness in the island of Samlay, of which a notice, 

 contained in a letter to Dr Brewster, is given in the succeeding article. 

 This discovery is calculated to set at rest the most important questions re- 

 lative to the origin of these vitrified remains. — S. II. 



