149 



sunk or cut square ; they are deeply indented in the mid- 

 dle, and decrease in depth to the surface ; at the ends they 

 appear, therefore, like marks or scratches made with a nail or 

 some pointed instrument, when the rock was in a soft state ; 

 for instance, like a gash made in the dough of a loaf, and 

 when baked, this gash would become an angular furrow. 



" The people of the neighbourhood do not speak Irish, 

 and that renders it difficult to obtain from them any thing- 

 like satisfactory evidence upon the subject, but M'Cann says 

 that many people have come (even from England) to exa- 

 mine this rock : he also recollects a preacher, named M'Quig, 

 who examined it between twenty and thirty years ago, and 

 who said he could understand parts of it, and that an account 

 of it would be found in O'Halloran's History. He also says 

 that it is mentioned in a book published about seven years 

 ago — a book about which there were many law-suits. (This 

 must be Lewis's Topographical Dictionary.)* 



" The people have a saying, that great troubles are to 

 come, and that the finishing battle is to be fought in the ad- 

 joining valley, and the ratification or settlement will be signed 

 upon this rock." 



DONATIONS. 



Two ancient Iron Swords and a Spear Head, found near 

 Kilmainham, Presented by the Directors of the Great 

 Southern and Western Railroad, 



Rubbings from an inscribed Stone, with Characters, sup- 

 posed to have been Ogham, at Drumlish, near Granard. 

 [Engraved to accompany the foregoing description.] Also a 

 Lithograph of a ruined Temple in Malta. Presented by 

 Colonel H. D. Jones, C. E. 



* It is not mentioned under Drumlish, in Lewis's Typogr. Dictionary. 



