646 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 
occur to the ‘ fairies,’ the ‘good people, the ‘ Danes’—-and by the latter is meant 
the Tuatha da Danaan, who are said to have lived in Ireland before the Celts. 
This race is always described as a small people. It seems impossible that any but 
a small people could have built and used the souterrains. 
The souterrains in Co. Down run to a greater length than those of Co. Antrim ; 
many are over 100 feet. Ardtole is 108 feet long, Rathmullan 120 fe+t, Slieve-na- 
Boley 128 feet. Heights of chambers vary from less than 3 feet to 6 feet and 
even 8 feet, but it is more usual to find them about 5 feet. The heights of 
the chambers of one at Shankbridge are as follows: first chamber, 3 feet 9 inches; 
second chamber, 4 feet 6 inches; the last about 3 feet, one of the ‘doorways’ 
being 17 inches square. 
At Donegore and Ballymartin, in Antrim, are two caves scooped out of basalt 
ash. The former is 29 feet 3 inches long; the latter has a total length of 
44 feet 6 inches. The stones which form the roof are very large. Their preserva- 
tion in such numbers can be accounted for partly by being underground, but 
chiefly by the superstitious reverence with which they have always been 
regarded. 
The structures are quite dark, of an even temperature, usually very near the 
surface, which accounts for many being accidentally discovered, the plough often 
displacing one of the covering stones. They are not oriented, yet few entrances 
can be successfully photographed during the middle of the day, and, in addition, 
they are so cunningly constructed and concealed as to be, in most cases, very 
difficult to find. In these counties the roofing stones are very large, while further 
south occurs a circular type, with overlapping courses and closed with a single 
stone, as in some of the tumuli, both sorts determined, no doubt, by the matenals 
lying close to hand. 
Very frequently a variety of monuments of early man are found in the 
vicinity—standing stones, cromleacs, kistvaens, and occasionally kitchen-middens. 
The only Ogam inscription found in Ulster was discovered in a souterrain at 
Carncomb, Connor, by the Rev. W. P. Carmody, B.A. 
Detailed measurements were given, with plans, of the following: Knockdhu, 
Cullybackey, Tannybrack, Fort Hill, Lisnataylor Fort, Crebilly, Shankbridge, 
Fort of Ross, Muckamore, Donegore, Ballymartin—all in Antrim; and Bally- 
grainey, Backaderry, Clanmagery, Slanes, Lough Boley, in Down, &c., and one at 
Lucan, in Co. Dublin, 
4. Some Objects recently found in York referable to the Viking Period. 
By G. A. AuprEn, I/.A., UD. 
During the autumn of 1906 excavations for building purposes in the city of 
York, a few yards from the left bank of the Ouse, have revealed a number 
of objects which may with certainty be referred to the Viking period. 
The area in question is situate at the junction of Nessgate and Coppergate, 
and contiguous to the site in which a large number of objects, dating from the 
Scandinavian occupation, were found during excavations for the Public Library 
and Friends’ Meeting House in 1884. 
Several objects are enumerated which have not been previously reported 
in England, and amongst these the chief interest centres in a brass chape of 
a sword scabbard, exhibiting an open zodmorphic interlacing design terminating 
in a conventionalised animal head which attached the chape to the material of the 
scabbard. 
The zodmorphic motif is further illustrated by several portions of contempo- 
raneous stonework which have been found from time to time in York. A 
consensus of opinion upon the objects described attributes them to the first half 
of the tenth century—a period which saw the Scandinavian power in York rise 
to its zenith, 
1 Published in full in Ann. Rep. York. Phil. Soc, 1906-7. 
