ANCIENT REMAINS IN ARRAN. 221 



astronomical relations made out by Sir John F. W. Herschel 

 in regard to the pyramids of Egypt, I took the liberty of 

 consulting him on the subject of the direction of the cists 

 within the Arran Stone Circles. He kindly replied that he 

 did not consider that it could have any connection with a 

 past conformation of the heavenly bodies, as affected by the 

 causes of change among them. To refer it to a past amount 

 of variation would of course be absurd. Shall we rather say 

 then that the direction was roughly taken N. and S. ; 

 that it had reference to the mid-day sun, or to a native 

 home of the race to which the constructors belonged, amid 

 the wilds of the north ? 



5. The information furnished by the human and other 

 bones is not of a very definite kind; the human remains 

 belong to a young person, most probably a female. There 

 are portions of deer's horns, and of an animal's jaw, most 

 probably a dog or seal. The absence of the wanting portions 

 of the human skeleton is not easily accounted for. There 

 was no trace on the floor of the cist of such an amount of 

 matter as the decomposition of the other bones would have 

 left; but if once decomposed the matter may have been 

 removed, or absorbed by the soil through the floor or spaces 

 between the stones forming the sides, during successive 

 floodings of the cist with water from the soil above. It is 

 highly probable that such removal may have taken place; 

 while the form and position of the skull would preserve it 

 from decomposition for a much longer time. Had the 

 remains belonged to an aged or powerful male, we should 

 have had much stronger evidence than we now possess for 

 regarding the circumference of huge pillared stones as reared 

 in honour of a great chief or warrior, instead of being a place 

 of mere ordinary sepulture. 



6. That these stone circles were erected for the object just 

 stated is further confirmed by the circumstance, that the 

 centre of each circle is marked by a cist; that the circumfer- 

 ence has been reared in all cases in reference to this central 



