84 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



tte mtroduction of the arts into Greece. To substantiate tliis 

 presumed antiquity, it would be necessary to bring forward further 

 examples from the three eastern countries, and thus prove the 

 connexion of the different links of the chain. Meanwhile every new 

 example, if carefully described, helps in the elucidation of this very 

 interesting problem, and must be considered as having a certain 

 historical value. As bearing on the question, and as tending to 

 illustrate one of the details, there is submitted herewith a stone in 

 which has been mechanically worked a conical cavity, and which has 

 all the characters of a socket-stone of one of these water-mills. It is 

 the property of the Rev. P. A. O'Reilly, c.c, at present administrator 

 of the parish of Killala, County Mayo, and he has very kindly 

 entrusted it to the author of the paper, giving at the same time the 

 following details : — " The stone was found about eight years ago at 

 Ardmore, in the Mullet, about thi-ee miles from Belmullet, at the 

 bottom of a cut-away bog, that is to say on the gravel." It has been 

 ia Pather O'Reilly's possession for the last four years. I had the 

 occasion of seeing it in 1898, and was much puzzled to account for the 

 fineness of the lines of wear at that time. Sir John Evans also saw it, 

 and pronounced it to be a socket of a water-mill, and subsequent con- 

 sideration of the whole question leads me to the same conclusion. I 

 have therefore prepared photos of it, and made a section to accompany 

 the present paper. (Plate IV.) The material of the stone is pure 

 white crystalline quartz, and the shape shows that it is a water- worn 

 pebble or cobble, such as might be found on a sea-shore or in the bed 

 of a mountain torrent. 



