ON THE AGE OF STONE CIRCLES. 379 



The greater part of the sides of the lower portions of the re-excavated 

 fosse was thinly covered with iron-pan. It has probably all become 

 deposited since the time the fosse was allowed to silt up — from natural 

 causes. As before stated, the lower portion of the silting was caused by 

 denudation of the sides of the fosse. The oxide of iron contained in this 

 granitic sand, or decomposed granite, was taken up by water constantly 

 filtering through the silting, and, being arrested by an almost impervious 

 stratum of the compact decomposed granite, forming the walls and 

 bottom of the fosse, became deposited, but very slowly, as a thin layer of 

 the hard ferruginous substance known as iron-pan. Mr. Clement Reid 

 kindly examined a sample of the granitic sand derived from this fosse. 



Cutting 2. — This cutting through the fosse was made a little to the 

 N. of the entrance on the W.S.W. It was 10 feet wide, and in con- 

 tinuation of it a cutting through the vallum (already described) was made. 

 A slight ditch was found, the maximum depth from the surface of the 

 silting being 1'4 foot in the centre. The bottom was cut in a rounded 

 form into the decomposed granite sub-soil. The iron-pan deposit was 

 reached on the sides of the ditch at a depth of 0-8 foot from the surface, 

 so that the ditch was cut into the sub-soil only to the extent of 0'6 foot. 

 At the iron-ore layer the ditch measured from 2| to 3 feet in width ; at 

 the surface it averaged 4"8 feet. 



Cutting 3. — The excavation of the fosse was continued from Cutting 2 

 in the direction of the entrance to the circle. At the end of the vallum 

 the ditch was found to make a slight bend outwards in a S.W. direction ; 

 and instead of terminating abruptly in a rounded end, as most ditches do 

 in such positions, it became shallower as we proceeded, and the sides 

 much less steep ; at 14 feet from Cutting 2 it died away entirely, and 

 could be traced no further. There were slight indications on the surface 

 of a little muddy gutter continuing from this point in a S.W. direction ; 

 and no doubt in winter-time, when the deeper ditch on the N. becomes 

 full of water, it drains from this site in the direction I have suggested. 



From the entrance on the W. to the modern stone wall on the E. no 

 trace of a fosse within the small rampart was observable on the surface ; 

 and in order to ascertain whether a ditch originally existed on this side of 

 the circle, seven distinct cuttings, mostly of small .size, were made in the 

 hope of settling the point. No hollow, or depression, was observable 

 immediately within the margin of the vallum, except near Stone XVII, 

 for a distance of about 50 feet, as shown by the contours. 



Cutting 4. — This excavation was 25 feet in length, and it differed 

 from Cuttings 5 to 10 inasmuch as the more or less even and regular 

 layer of bog iron-ore had been penetrated ' by the constructors of the 

 circle. Although the ditch in Cutting 3 terminated at the entrance in 

 such a peculiar manner, the end of the little ditch on the other side of the 

 entrance exhibited a normal outline, having a rounded end such as we 

 expected to find on the N. side of the entrance. By the excavation of 

 Cuttings 3 and 4 we have proved that the width of the entrance between 

 these two ditches was only 9 feet. The N. end of Cutting 4 was in line 

 with the rounded end of the vallum at the S. of the entrance. The 

 existence of a small fosse was traced in the N.W. half of this cutting, but 

 it was very indefinite at the S.S.E. end. The depth of the little fosse 

 was 1"7 foot from the surface of the tilling. The average width of the 



' The iron-ore had been penetrated here and two or three inches of the material 

 beneath it. 



