FRAzER—On a Great Sepulchral Mound. 39 
were obtained principally in the west and southern parts of the 
tumulus, and were scattered through the clay, and mixed up with it. 
These shells seemed like the emptyings of some old domestic refuse- 
heap or kitchen-midden, the rubbish of which, with its broken shells, 
was used on the spot to assist in covering over the bodies of the slain, 
and I found with them a fragment of early earthenware and a whorl 
of baked clay. Some broken pieces of these shells I have already said 
had even entered the interior of certain of the skulls, and were removed 
when washing out the clay that filled them. The following is a list 
of the mollusca that were noticed; they give us a clear idea of the then 
existing marine fauna of the district—a fauna that has undergone con- 
siderable modifications within recent times :-— 
Buccinum undatum, ! . This shell is probably not obtainable 
at present nearer than Howth. 
LInttorina communis, ‘ . Has now retired beyond Kingstown. 
Iuttorina rudis, . 4 c Do. 
Lnttorina neritovdes, . A few specimens. Has now retired 
; beyond Kingstown. 
Solen (sp.), : : . A fragment. 
Ostrea edulis (common), . This, which was a common inhabitant 
of our bay, has within the last ten 
years been almost completely exter- 
minated. 
Mytilus edulis (much decayed), Do. 
Cardium edule, . 3 . Still common at Sandymount. 
Cardium echinatum, ' . Got at Portmarnock. 
Mr. Baily, Paleontologist to the Royal Geological Survey, had 
found several of these shells, and gave me the specimens he obtained, to 
add to my own collection. There was no large accumulation of cockle 
or oyster shells discovered, such as we should expect to procure if they 
had been cooked and eaten on the spot; instead of this they were dis- 
persed through particular portions of the excavations, and presented 
the appearance of being spread out with the waste soil to cover the 
dead. About afoot deep of debris lay above the bones, and this was 
all that separated them from the surface, save a dense layer of old grass 
sod, which averaged a thickness of eight inches additional, varying in 
different places an inch more or less. 
Bones belonging to different domestic animals were identified ; these 
included the bones of a small horse or ass, the cow, calf, sheep, pig, 
dog, and possibly wolf. The animal remains were not in sufficient 
quantity to have supplied the necessities of an invading force encamped 
on the spot for even a few weeks, and there were no arrangements dis- 
coverable for permanent cooking-places, and no special midden-heap 
containing the bones of the animals. They suggested the idea of being 
the debris of an impromptu feast held by savages in the midst of their 
prisoners, and when these were being slain the bones of the animals 
F 2 
