VOL. XXVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 71 



I have inquired diligently of the neighbours, if they found any shocks or 

 indications of an earthquake, but do not find the least appearance of any. They 

 impute it to the great and constant rains we have had last harvest and winter, 

 which have soaked and steeped all the ground, but cannot guess after what 

 manner they should produce this effect; for it is impossible any water shonld 

 stand on the ground, or in the vicinity, it being all on the declivity of the hill. 



An Account of some Ancient Trumpets^ and other Pieces of Antiquity, found in 



the. County of Tyrone in Ireland. By Francis Nevill, Esq. N° 337, art. 32, 



p. 270. 



About 7 years since, there were 8 trumpets found together in the lower 

 Barony of Dungannon, in the County of Tyrone, 4 of one make and 4 of 

 another. They are of cast brass, of the thickness of an English half crown. 



Fig. 1 8, pi. I , represents one of the trumpets 24 inches long, according to 

 the turn or arch it makes, and is 3 inches in diameter at the large end, but at 

 the small end it is solid for about 2 inches, with a loop at top to hang it by, 

 and another loop between the solid part and the mouth-piece. The mouth- 

 piece is oval, 5 inches from the solid end. If inch long, and 1 inch wide; its 

 sides are smooth, round, and even, easy for the lips of a man, but will not 

 admit of any sound by blast as a horn does, but by the articulate voice of tooting 

 it will ; a person may raise his voice in it to the highest pitch, and bring it to 

 the deepest base. 



Fig. 19, is another trumpet 26 inches long, 1 inch wide at the small end, 

 and 3 inches at the other; but it seems to be imperfect, for want of a mouth- 

 piece, and the small end seems to be fitted to receive one. On the back, at a, 

 there is a hole, and another under the moulding at b; the first I believe was to 

 fasten the mouth-piece, the second I imagine was to stop or open with the 

 finger to alter the sound at pleasure. But as it is now, it cannot be sounded: 

 for it is no way fitted for the mouth, it being thin and sharp, as appears by the 

 figure. 



I cannot find in any Irish story, or by tradition, any account of this sort of 

 trumpets, nor indeed of any other; from whence I gather they are of great 

 antiquity ; for had they been of use at, or since the first of the English con- 

 quests, there would have been some hints of them. And therefore I conclude 

 they were of use when the country was Pagan, and not in martial affairs, but 

 by the priests, at their funeral rights, when they buried their dead, and bore a 

 part with those who cried at those funerals, or made a howling sort of a noise, 

 which sort of noise is used among the natives to this day. 



Fig. 20 is an instrument of fine gold, but what to call it, or of what use, I 



