Pltjnkett — On a Long Barron- in the Co. Fermanagh. 327 



cists or chambers, and are built of round boulders of all sizes, 

 gathered from the surface of the ground in the locality. The large 

 mounds on the banks of the Boyne " are composed of small stones," 

 except the large flags which form the chambers, " and are encircled at 

 the base with a line of stones of enormous magnitude." The latter is 

 a common feature in the English barrows. No evidence of either 

 ditch or circle of large stones could be traced at the " Miracles " 

 barrow. 



I shall now refer to some facts of a geological nature, together 

 with objects of some interest which I found in a crannoge which 

 occurs about 50 perches from the barrow, and at a lower level in the 

 valley, both of which bear pretty strong evidence in favour of the great 

 antiquity of this monument. I have stated in this paper, that from 

 the present aspect of this valley, I formed a strong opinion that it is an 

 ancient river-bed. The evidence bearing on this point I have already 

 stated, but there is another fact which I wish to add. On my first 

 examination of the barrow, I found the stones used in its structure 

 were foreign to the locality, as I was familiar with the geological for- 

 mations of the neighbourhood, and that the stones must have been 

 brought from a considerable distance ; and I could not account for the 

 means used to transport them hither, especially overland and before 

 "the day of roads," as we have no machinery at present, in the ab- 

 sence of a pavement road, that could convey them through a hilly 

 country to the spot where they are now deposited. This seemed to me 

 the greatest mystery in connexion with it. Even if there were 

 " giants in those days," they could not remove them from one part of 

 the country to another over the natural surface of the ground. 



One day, while in conversation with the owner of the place, I told 

 him the stones were of a different kind from those found in the 

 locality. In reply, he said that some years ago they were sinking a 

 deep trench or dyke, a short distance below the barrow, through the 

 valley, and they struck on a rock of the same kind of stone about 5 ft. 

 from the surface. I examined the spot, and found a stone of exactly 

 the same description as those in the barrow, but not in its native bed. 

 It was buried in alluvium or ancient silt, covered with a deposit of 

 similar material, to a depth of about 3 feet ; and, towards the surface, 

 passed into "bog moss," which is a deposit from decayed vegetable 

 matter. There were no stones, either small or large, of the same 

 material found in the dyke. All were sandstone — the native rock of 

 the locality. This block was not scored or polished like what is found 

 in the boulder drift. A short distance from the place where this 

 stone lay, I found a deposit of shell-marl. All these facts, together 

 with what I have stated at the beginning of this Paper, corroborate 

 the theory, that at the time this monument was erected the valley 

 was covered with a sheet of water, and formed a junction with the 

 Sillies river ; and from the evidence already adduced, it appears that 

 the huge stones were conveyed on rafts over this waterway to the very 

 edge of the natural mound on which the monument is erected, and 



