4 
ON REMAINS OF INDIGENOUS WOOD IN ORKNEY. 177 
history is uncertain, we are fortunately in possession of other silent 
records of the past, which enable us to affirm that at some period 
anterior to the Norse invasion these islands were inhabited by a rude 
race of men who appeared to have obtained a part of their subsistence 
by hunting deer and other wild animals in the forests. This is clearly 
proved by numerous remains of human habitations constructed of 
stone, found on nearly all the islands, which generally contain horns 
and bones of the red deer, and of a species of ox, Bos longifrons, along 
with bones of the hog and other smaller quadrupeds and birds, in- 
cluding the Alca impe/mis, or great auk, which has become extinct in 
Orkney only during the present century. 
I have specimens of antlers and bones of red deer from Mr. Watt, 
of Skaill, which are interesting not only as relics of a fauna locally 
extinct, but they are also valuable as enabling us to connect the period 
at which these forests grew with undoubted marks of the presence of 
human inhabitants ; or, in other words, that before the epoch of the 
forests and their fauna had terminated, that of the human inhabitants 
had commenced. The dark-coloured antlers, two of which are very 
large and perfect, were found in a peatmoss, which appears to have 
contributed to their preservation, though it has deepened their colour. 
The other horns and bones were taken out of some of these ancient 
buildings, where they are often found mixed with the bones of other 
animals, but those of deer are most numerous. In the largest tumulus 
opened by Mr. Watt, he collected nearly enough to fill three barrels. 
The light colour of these bones, and the crumbling condition of many 
°f them, contrast strongly with the more perfect state of those found 
in peat. 
It is observable that the antlers found in these old houses are gene- 
rally in a fragmentary or truncated condition, the snags or points 
being broken off. In all probability these smaller pieces served as 
substitutes for skewers or forks, or were perhaps applied to a greater 
variety of miscellaneous uses than we, in these days of cheap cutlery, 
can easily imagine. I have a spur of deer's horn, found by my son 
Jast summer in the foundation-wall of a brough or round tower near 
Kirkwall, which has evidently been sharpened by art, and for an inch 
or two back from the point it is glazed or polished, as though it had 
been used for boring holes in skins, or for some such purpose; the 
ftick end of it has been slightly rounded off, which would prevent it 
from injuring the hand, if used in the manner I have suggested. 
