antiquities have been collected ; nor, considering the probability 

 that this crannog was garrisoned and used for more than a hundred 

 years, and perhaps frequently burned, need we wonder at the large 

 amount of bones thrown out by the well-fed warriors, the great 

 number of antiquities, or the evidences of fire so extensively exhi- 

 bited in the cutting made through the remains of the crannog; 

 whilst these matters all tend to confirm the truth and value of the 

 Annals. 



But the matters of greatest interest in connexion with the cran- 

 nogs is to ascertain the period of the first adoption of such modes 

 of defence, as I suspect these crannogs existed long previous to 

 1150, which is the earliest allusion to them that I have found as 

 yet in the Annals ; and secondly, having now found them, and 

 knowing their purpose, to make such diligent searches as shall lead 

 to useful results, by the collection of many matters which would 

 naturally be brought to these water forts as places of security, and 

 which, being either lost there, or thrown into the water in the ex- 

 tremities of siege, or drowned with their owners in the last strug- 

 gles of a warlike life, would remain hidden in the depths until now. 

 My only fears are, that in many instances they have been so deeply 

 covered by marl and other deposits, as to escape our means of 

 search. 



In that highly interesting part of ancient Breifny traversed by 

 the Junction Canal, many of these islands, as adverted to, exist ; 

 and we have not yet lowered the waters of some of the lakes men- 

 tioned in the Annals — M'Gauran, for instance — at the year 1512. 



I have every reason to hope, from the attention called to this 

 subject, and the instructions issued, we may still expect many inte- 

 resting additions to our collection. 



In conclusion, I wish to state that the Commissioners of Public 

 Works request that the articles collected under their instructions, 

 and now presented, should be arranged and kept according to the 

 localities in which they have been found. I trust I may not be 

 misunderstood as resting any part of the argument in favour of a 

 geographic or local arrangement upon the influence of a donor's 

 request ; the object and interest which the Academy and the Com- 

 missioners (who are mostly members of the Academy) have in this 

 matter cannot be otherwise than common. 



I submit that a leading principle in arranging a museum of 

 antiquities like ours should be, as far as possible, to obviate re- 



