211 



Monaghan, very cursorily alluded to by Mr. Shirley in his 

 publication; butW. T.Mulvaney, Esq., Commissioner of Pub- 

 lic Works, informs me he has heard of two others in lakes in 

 Cavan and Leitrim, laid bare by drainage, and for the particu- 

 lars of which he has very politely written. 



" It is remarkable, that the forms of the stockades at Dun- 

 shaughlin and Cloonfinlough are perfectly similar, that both 

 were situate in lakes, and exposed by drainage operations; that 

 opposite Cloonfinlough on the main land is a ruined church ; 

 opposite Dunshaughlin, a ruined structure ; that near both ca- 

 noes were found, and that the pins and other antiquarian re- 

 mains, as well as the heads of oxen found, are precisely identical. 



" It is thus, I think, quite manifest, that these islands are 

 artificially constructed, and that originally they were inaccessi- 

 ble, except by boats, whilst from the circumstances of these boats 

 being hollowed out of single trees, and some of them of very 

 considerable size, the conclusion follows that they were con- 

 structed at a very remote period, when the art of boat-build- 

 ing was comparatively unknown, and ere the primeval forests 

 had vanished from our soil ; and this supposition would be 

 strengthened by many of the pins and bronze ornaments found, 

 whilst the horns of the Irish elk, long extinct, would similarly 

 point to a very remote date. But along with these are also found 

 other matters of much more recent date, and which would lead 

 to quite a different conclusion. 



" Amongst these latter articles are knives, some of ivhich 

 have failed in the forging ; combs in an incomplete state of ma- 

 nufacture ; deer-horns saivn in sunder, and shavings as if left 

 after a turner. From these I am led to think, that whatever 

 may have been its original occupants, in later times the little 

 island resounded to the busy hum of industry, and that the 

 smith, the brazier, the comb-maker, and the turner, there drove a 

 brisk trade, and sometimes solaced their leisure in the construc- 

 tion of pretty toys, like the tiny plate-bucket in the possession of 

 the post-mistress of Strokestown, and whose neatness of finish 



