22U ANCIENT REMAINS IN ARRAN. 



2. They must have been capable of using mechanical appli- 

 ances of great power, eveu on the supposition that the 

 pillared stones are from the carboniferous formation, and 

 were fetched from the nearest point possible the bed of 

 Mauchrie Water. 



3. Archaeologists divide the pre-histoi'ic period in our 

 islands into the Stone and Bronze periods. If their classifi- 

 cation be correct, and if it be conceded that there is human 

 progress in every period, then the use of rude flint imple- 

 ments and of implements of bronze ought to be separated by 

 a wide intei-val, and only flint implements of the most perfect 

 forms, if any, ought to be associated with an article of 

 bronze. But in the present case, flint implements of the 

 rudest forms are associated with an article of bronze; the 

 two have co-existed, have been in use together, and thus the 

 Stone and Bronze periods have interlaced deeply; probably 

 more deeply in an isolated situation such as Arran, than on 

 the adjoining continent of Britain, where improvements in 

 processes of art would spread more rapidly. But we must 

 guard against attaching too much importance to a single 

 case. It is, however, highly desirable that inquiries of this 

 kind should be multiplied in order to test the truth of the 

 theory; it would be greatly invalidated if such association 

 were found to be frequent. 



4. All the cists have their greatest length between N. and 

 N.N.E., and their construction may therefore be inferred to 

 have been anterior to the earlier Christian times in this 

 country, when a superstitious regard began to be cherished 

 for a direction pointing east The present amount of varia- 

 tion of the compass has been in all cases allowed for; and it 

 does certainly seem strange that the directions should so 

 agree towards a north point they lie, in fact, roughly N. 

 and S., being all a little E. of N., the direction having 

 clearly no sort of connection with the inclination of the 

 surface of the ground, for though this is very various the 

 direction is always the same. Knowing the curious 



