6 1 4 Vitrified Forts. 



presses a wish that science would explain the manner in 

 which vitrification of forts was effected. Having formed 

 the opinion that the Yorkshire method of vitrification 

 most closely resembled that used by the old fort- 

 builders, I wrote to Mr. Burton giving an account of 

 it, and the letter with sundry blunders in geological 

 names is printed in a paper by Mr. John Stuart, LL.D. 

 in the ' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of 

 Scotland,' 1868-9. All the vitrified forts in Scotland 

 are either in the Highlands, or in Berwickshire and 

 Galloway, where rocks easily vitrified abound, and but 

 that there are neither vitrified forts nor native celts in 

 modern Yorkshire, one would almost be tempted to 

 speculate on the art of vitrification having descended 

 there, from an ancient Pictish people of the bronze 

 age, such as are supposed by Dr. Julius Ernest Fodisch 

 to have erected the scorified ramparts of the forts in 

 Bohemia. The vitrification of rocks in Yorkshire I 

 have thought worthy of being recorded, throwing as it 

 does some light on the method employed in the con- 

 struction of forts in times that seem to us to be pre- 

 historic. 



The New Eed Sandstone also yields its share of 

 building stones, but much of it is very soft and easily 

 worn by the weather, a notable example of which was 

 seen in the Cathedral at Chester before its restoration. 

 The white Keuper Sandstone of Grrinshill, north of 

 Shrewsbury, the Peckforton Hills, and Delamere Forest, 

 is an excellent stone. The Old Bed Sandstone is also 

 used as a building stone in its own area, and, as already 

 stated, the Caradoc Sandstone of Shropshire, near Church 

 Stretton, yields a beautiful white material. 



The rock-salt of Worcestershire and Cheshire is a 

 valuable commodity. It lies in the New Eed Marl, 



