xliv 



" The cases that have been particularly examined are those in 

 Drumaleague Lough, Lough Scur, Loughtown Lake, and Leesbo- 

 rough Lake. These have been carefully measured and examined on 

 the surface, and in most instances cuts have been made across the 

 centre of the island, for the purpose of ascertaining its interior con- 

 struction. In most of the other cases mentioned in the list, the 

 surface merely has been examined, and the dimensions of the in- 

 closure measured. 



" The general features of construction are very much alike in 

 all these islands : 



"1st. They are surrounded by stakes, driven generally in a cir- 

 cle from sixty to eighty feet in diameter ; but in some cases the 

 inclosure is larger, and of an oval shape, as for instance, that in 

 Loughtown Lake, which is 120 feet from east to west, and 100 feet 

 from north to south ; and one of those in Lough Mac Hugh, which 

 measures 118 feet in one direction, and seventy- four feet in another. 



" 2nd. These outside stakes are generally of oak, from four to 

 nine inches in diameter ; sometimes driven in a single row, some- 

 times double, and in some cases, as that of island No. 1, in Druma- 

 league Lake, of which a sketch plan is given in drawing 2, fig. 1, the 

 stakes are found in single row in parts of the island, and in double 

 or treble rows, or clusters, in other parts. The island in Loughtown 

 Lake differs from the others in being surrounded by a mass of 

 stakes upwards of fifteen feet wide, and rather inclined towards the 

 centre of the island. 



" 3rd. The portions of the stakes remaining in the ground are 

 evidently the lower ends of young trees, or of branches of large 

 trees, which were stuck down just as they grew in the wood ; the 

 thicker end downwards, and bearing the marks of the hatchet by 

 which they were felled. A considerable length of these stakes 

 must, therefore, have projected over the ground ; and they may 

 probably have been joined together by horizontal branches, inter- 

 laced so as to form a screen, well calculated to serve for shelter or 

 defence. All the portions of the stakes which were above ground 

 have been destroyed by time ; but the portions remaining below 

 ground, particularly where the stratum is pure peat, are generally 

 very sound at the heart, and have become as black as the oak usu- 

 ally found in bogs. 



" 4th. The surface within the staked inclosure is usually covered 

 over with a layer or two of round logs, cut into lengths of from 



