ANCIENT REMAINS IN AREAN. 219 



Anderson finds that the external surface only is burnt, and 

 the interior appears to have been scarcely heated, for it still 

 contains upwards of 7 per cent, of the water of combination 

 of the clay, which would have been expelled had the urn 

 been strongly heated throughout. The clay has not been 

 brought into a uniform plastic mass, but has the structure 

 of a number of small pellets, with bits of stony fragments, 

 which Dr. Anderson suggests may have been used to prevent 

 the urn from cracking during the process of drying and 

 burning. He also considers that the reddish colour of 

 the surface, produced by a peroxidation of the iron, is an 

 additional proof that the urn was subjected to a slight 

 artificial heat. 



The flint of which the implements consist is not found in 

 Arran, but it is met with on the opposite coast of Antrim, 

 where it forms beds in the chalk; and thence the rude stone 

 may have been derived, as Cantire and the islands had inter- 

 course with the north of Ireland from the very earliest 

 times. But this is part of a very wide question, and need 

 not be here dwelt upon. 



The bronze pin is 2J inches long, with a polished surface 

 like that of a smooth bone, and resembles the pin of a brooch 

 or bracelet, but slightly thicker. It was chemically tested 

 by Dr. Stevenson Macadam, at that time Lecturer on 

 Chemistry, Edinburgh, and by this means, and a compari- 

 son with similar objects in the Museum of the Antiquarian 

 Society made by the Secretary, distinctly proved to be 

 of bronze, though much altered in structure. 



104. From the facts which have now been stated, the 

 following inferences seem legitimately deducible : 



1. Whatever may have been the state of civilization 

 among the constructors of these works, a certain sense of 

 fitness or congruity must have existed in their minds ; 

 for though there are so many circles, thei*e is no mixture of 

 dissimilar stones they are either all of sandstone or all of 

 granite. 



