ROUND BARROW AT MELCOMBE BINGHAM. 75 



South of peg three, and one foot six inches down. The North 

 edge was five feet North of peg three, and five feet down. 

 The bottom of the trench was found two feet North of peg 

 three, and six feet three inches down. The next four days, 

 Sept. 27th to Sept. 30th, were very wet, and consequently 

 little excavating could be done, but progress was made by 

 putting up wire round the barrow to keep out the cattle, 

 getting out the large flints at the top of the barrow, and 

 rolling and piling them at the bottom. On Monday, Oct 2nd, 

 Mr. Legge, who was working with me, began to excavate on 

 the Northern side,where the ditch was presumed approximately 

 to be, and he soon came upon it. Owing to the fall of the 

 ground it was much deeper than on the South side. (See 

 Section.) 



On examining the cutting of this ditch, I observed that a 

 stratum of rubble chalk, one foot in thickness, completely 

 covered the top of the ditch, while the bulk of the ditch was 

 filled up with brown earth. This led me to suspect that there 

 was, in all probability, an outer ditch still to be found, from 

 which this rabble chalk had been taken to cover over the 

 interments in the ditch. 



This surmise proved to be correct, and on Oct. 12th Mr. 

 Legge uncovered the second, or outer ditch, at the point where 

 this stratum of chalk ended. 



On Tuesday, Oct. 3rd, the centre of the barrow having been 

 reached, it was found desirable to widen the cutting at this 

 point, for two reasons : firstly, to get more room for ex- 

 cavating the primary interment ; and, secondly, because the 

 huge flints showed a tendency to fall in upon the workers. 



No. I. WOMAN. The next day, Oct. 4th, digging was begun 

 over the primary interment and some bones were found two 

 feet and a half below the top of the barrow, and four feet 

 six inches South of peg 1. There were some very heavy 

 showers on this day; and on the following day, Oct. 5th, heavy 

 rain fell, with the result that the Eastern edge of the cutting 

 fell in during the night. The next day, Oct. 6th, it was seen 

 that more bones of this (No. I.) woman had fallen, with the 



