PARISH OF CROSBY GARRETT. 389 



Ravenstonedale Common. Somewhat to the east of them, and at 

 no great distance from a small sheet of water called Sunbiggin 

 Tarn, is a very large long barrow, an account of the examination of 

 which will be found in that part of this volume devoted to that 

 class of sepulchral mound. 



The position of these cairns is a very striking one, standing- as 

 they do fronted by the range of mountains which here divide 

 Westmoreland from Yorkshire, and having the grand outline of 

 Wildbore Fell and the hills on the further side of Mallerstang on 

 the one side, while the distant mountains beyond Shap close the 

 view in the opposite direction. To the .north the eye is almost at 

 once stopped by the precipitous scaurs on Asby and Orton Fells, 

 where the huge sheets of bare limestone rocks, alternating between 

 pale purple and a warm white as the shadow or the sunshine falls 

 upon them, give a weird though attractive interest to the scene. 



CLXXIV. The first of the three cairns was of rather an unusual 

 form, being markedly oval, 66ft. long and 40ft. wide, with the longer 

 diameter north and south. It is placed upon an outcrop of the 

 limestone rock, and looks higher than it really is, there being now 

 not more than IJft. of added material. At one time it was no 

 doubt several feet higher, but it has been reduced to its present 

 low elevation by the action of the "stone- waller, to whom is also to 

 be attributed the broken and disturbed condition in which many 

 of the bones were found. They were met with scattered throughout 

 the whole of the southern part of the mound and for a space of 

 7ft. north of the centre. There cannot have been fewer than a dozen 

 unburnt and burnt interments in the cairn, as shown by the remains 

 of the bones, and it is probable that there were more. At a 

 distance of 23^ ft. south-south-east of the centre, and laid upon the 

 natural surface, was the body of a strongly-made and aged man, 

 which though much disturbed still showed the position in which 

 it had been originally placed. The body was deposited on the left 

 side, with the head to S.S.W., and the hands up to and in front of 

 the face. Close to the face was a bone pin with a large perforated 

 head, and two boar's-tusks, one certainly that of a wild animal, and 

 showing signs of having been adapted to some purpose, though to 

 what it is difficult to say; the other possibly that of a domestic pig, 

 and unwrought. All these articles had been broken by pulling out 

 the large stones which had been placed over the body, and portions 

 of the pin and of the tusks were missing. In near proximity to 



