Knowles — On Prehistoric Remains. 659 



The Potteuy op the Sandhills. 



Remains of the domestic clay vessels are very abundant in some of 

 the sandhills, particularly Whitepark Bay, Portstewart, Grangemore, 

 and Dundrum. I have found pottery in fair abundance at Horn Head, 

 and a little at Ballyness, Bunbeg, Bundoran, and Portsalon. Gr. H. 

 Kinahan, m.k.i.a., when writing recently to the Irish Naturalist, asks 

 why it happens that pottery is not found in the sandhills of Donegal. 

 He evidently had not observed that in my previous reports to the 

 Academy I had mentioned the finding of pottery in several prehistoric 

 sites in that county. Other archseologists have also found the usual 

 prehistoric pottery in Donegal. Mr. E. C. Welch writes to the Irish 

 Naturalist that he had found specimens at Eosapenna ; and Alexander 

 D'Evelyn, m.d., Ballymena, informed me that he picked up some frag- 

 ments along the coast north-west of Portsalon in the summer of 1894. 

 Pottery has not yet been found at some of the sites mentioned in 

 this report, particularly those on Achill Island and other parts 

 of the west coast which I visited in 1894. At Keel, however, 

 Mr. Sheridan and myself found some clay among the blackish 

 material of the old surface which I have no doubt was brought 

 there by the prehistoric people for the purpose of making into 

 domestic vessels, and further search may bring some fragments of 

 pottery to light. 



I have never found a perfect vessel in any of the sandhills, but I 

 obtained the broken fragments of several vessels, and was able to make 

 out their shape correctly. I show two restored vessels on pp. 660 and 

 661, figs. 1 and 2, about half natural size, which I can certify to being 

 true representations, as I had for my guidance pieces continuous from 

 top to bottom. The form of vessel shown in fig, 1 seems to be the most 

 common, but the form outlined in PI. xx,, fig. 11, is also plentiful, 

 only the neck varies in width in different specimens. The Eev. Dr. 

 Buick gives restored views of other vessels from the sandhills in the 

 " Journal of the Eoyal Society of Antiquaries," vol. i., 5th series, 

 PI. IV., facing p. 440, which I have no doubt are correct, though I 

 have not had the opportunity of verifying them. The form shown 

 in PI. XX., fig. 12, is taken from the bowl found by the Eev. Leonard 

 Hasse at Dundrum, county Down. 



I show on PI. XX. several broken fragments of pottery having 

 different kinds of ornamentation. The marks on fig. 13 would appear 

 to have been made with the point of a bone pin. The patterns on figs. 

 14 and 15 have been made by scratching the lines with a sharp- 



