ARCHEOLOGY. 



recovered. The crannog, situated 1,600 yards east 

 of the castle rock of Dumbarton, and about 2.000 

 yards from Dunglass Castle, below high-water mark, 

 is about 50 yards from the river at low tide, but is 



PREHISTORIC IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN THE CRANNOG 



submerged when the tide is in to a depth of from 3 

 to 12 feet of water. The approach to the dwelling 

 is from the north. The circuit of the crannog is 

 184 feet. The piles in the outer circle are of oak, 

 which below the mud surface is still quite fresh. 

 The transverse beams and pavements inside are of 

 wood of the consistence or cheese (willow, alder, 

 ami oak), while the smaller branches are of fir, 

 bin-Ti. and hazel, with bracken, moss, and chips. 

 The stones in the outer circle and along the cause- 

 way leading to the dwelling place seem to have been 

 set in methodical order, most of the boulders being 

 about a lift for a man. The refuse mound extends 

 for about 12 feet outside for the greater part of the 

 circuit, and in this most of the bone and flint im- 

 plements have been discovered. While this cran- 

 nog does not differ in construction (of stones, 

 wooden piles, and pavements) and shape from 

 other well-known sites of the kind in Ireland and 

 elsewhere, it is absolutely unique in two respects ; 

 first, in being situated on the shores of a tidal 

 river ; and, second, in that so far none but imple- 



A PREHISTORIC LADDER. 



village at Glastonbury, for example, yielded speci- 

 mens of bronze fibulae and other articles. The largest 

 article found in the Dumbarton crannog was a canoe, 

 37 feet long and 40 inches beam, dug out of a single 

 oak tree, which lay in what 

 has proved to have been a 

 dock. A curious ladder was 

 also found here, the rungs 

 of which were cut out of 

 the solid wood, and which 

 has somewhat the general 

 appearance of a post of a 

 post - and - rail fence. The 

 exploration of the site is 

 much impeded by the rising 

 of the tide, which covers the 

 crannog for a considerable 

 time every day. All the rel- 

 ics found, consisting chiefly 

 of objects of bone, staghorn, 

 jet, chert, and cannel coal, 

 with some querns, the canoe, ladder, etc., have been 

 placed in the museum at Glasgow. 



ments of flint and bone have been discovered. 

 This would throw its occupation back to the 

 Neolithic period, whrivas crannogs are usually 

 associated with the bronze age. The British lake 



PREHISTORIC 

 CANOE. 



France. The Ancient Walls of Paris. At 



Paris, behind the Church of Notre Dame, excava- 

 tions made for the construction of a private house 

 have brought to light extensive remains of the 

 ancient wall of the city. They were found at a 

 depth of about 16 feet below the actual level of the 

 ground, running on a line of 195 feet between the 

 Quai aux Fleurs, the Rue Chenimesse, and the 

 Cloitre Notre Dame, in the face of the He St. 

 Louis. The wall was a strong construction, nearly 

 10 feet thick. The material of which it was com- 

 posed consisted of large stones taken from older 

 Roman buildings. Several blocks, cut in the shape 

 of steps and covered with inscriptions, are sup- 

 posed to come, like the pieces found several years 

 ago on the Parvis de Notre Dame, from the ancient 

 amphitheater known as the Arenes of the Rue 

 Monge. The inscriptions contain certain names of 

 the citizens of the ancient Lutetia for whom those 

 seats were reserved. 



A Phoenician Inscription at Avignon. A 

 Phoenician inscription discovered at Avignon in 

 1897 is the first of the kind found in Franc -p. the 

 origin of which is beyond dispute. A translation 

 of it which has been published by M. Mayer Lam- 

 bert in the " Journal Asiatique," shows it to be the 

 epitaph of a married priestess of a divinity whose 

 name has been unfortunately mutilated. It ends 

 with an injunction against opening the tomb. The 

 fact that it was not found at a port, but a consider- 

 able distance in the interior is to be remarked. 



Home. The Graffito of the House of Ti- 

 berius. A graffito discovered by Prof. Orazio 

 Marucchi in the house of Tiberius on the Palatine 

 Hill, in Rome, lias attracted much attention be- 

 muse of a suggestion that was made at the time 



