CHAP. II. IRISH LAKE-DWELLINGS, OR CRANNOGES. 31 



the cabin, and remains of other similar huts adjoining were 

 seen but not explored. A stone celt, found in the interior of 

 the hut, and a piece of leather sandal, also an arrow-head of 

 flint, and in the bog close at hand a wooden sword, give 

 evidence of the remote antiquity of this building, which may 

 be taken as a type of the early dwellings on the Crannoge 

 islands. 



" The whole structure," says Captain Mudge, " was wrought 

 wnth the rudest kind of implements, and the labor bestowed 

 on it must have been immense. The wood of the mortises 

 was more bruised than cut, as if by a blunt stone chisel."* 

 Such a chisel lay on the floor of the hut, and by comparing it 

 with the marks of the tool used in forming the mortises, they 

 were found " to correspond exactly, even to the slight cui'ved 

 exterior of the chisel; but the logs had been hewn by a 

 larger instrument, in the shape of an axe. On the floor of 

 the dwelling lay a slab of freestone, three feet long and four- 

 teen inches thick, in the centre of which was a small pit three- 

 quarters of an inch deep, which had been chiselled out. This 

 is presumed to have been used for holding nuts to be cracked 

 by means of one of the round shingle stones, also found there, 

 which had served as a hammer. Some entire hazel-nuts and 

 a great quantity of broken shells were strewed about the 

 floor." 



The foundations of the house were made of fine sand, such 

 as is found with shingle on the sea-shore about two miles 

 distant. Below the layer of sand the bog or peat was ascer- 

 tained, on probing it with an instrument, to be at least fifteen 

 feet thick. Although the interior of the building when dis- 

 covered was full of "bog" or peaty matter, it seems when in- 

 habited to have been surrounded by growing trees, some of 

 the trunks and roots of which are still preserved in their 



* Mudge, Archseologia, vol. xxvi. 



