Dr Hibbcrt on the Vitrified Culms of Orkney. 31 1 



Semicircle of Earlh 

 'fifi ''-ySginond's Huio 



be traced the limits of an ancient ting, where, in Pagan times, 

 the functions of the priest and 

 the judge were combined. 



But the most interesting 

 remains of which Elsness can 

 boast are the beacon cairns 

 with which it is studded over; 

 — many of these exhibiting 

 unequivocal testimony of a 

 vitrification quite as intense 

 as is to be traced in any vi- 

 trified fort of Scotland. -j- 



Iiay Elsness. 



These round cairns, of which I counted more than twenty, 

 are from three to five yards in diameter, and elevated from two 

 to three feet above the surface of the ground. The stone 

 fragments, of which they are composed, which had evidently 

 been collected from the beach, consist of what geologists would 

 name an argillaceous schist ; being, in this instance, an equi- 

 valent of the Mansfield slate. Their fusibility they have chiefly 

 derived from the felspar, or rather the alkali, which they con- 

 tain. The bituminous matter which may often be found to 

 enter into their composition, and which, if constantly present, 

 would materially add to their fusibility, is but an occasional 

 occurrence. 



Altogether, these mounds answer to the description given 

 by Martin of the ancient beacons of the Isle of Karris, another 

 early colony of the Norwegians: " There are, 1 ' says this writer, 

 " several heaps of stones commonly called Karnes on the tops 

 of hills and rising grounds on the coast, upon which the inhabi- 

 tants used to burn heath as a signal of an approaching enemy." 



Upon the possibility, however, of mere heather to produce 

 an effect, which I have been hitherto only disposed to attribute 

 to the combustion of large piles of wood, I will not yet give 

 an opinion. Wood is only found in Orkney in a fossil state, 

 that is, buried in peat ; and whether this substance was cm- 

 ployed, or peat itself, which is by far the most abundant fuel 

 in Orkney, or dried sea ware, or heather, or a mixture of two 

 or more of these combustibles, I am not now prepared to dig. 



