Plunkett — Cist and Urns found at TallagJd. 339 



in case of accident in removal, before it was touched I had photo- 

 graphs of it taken by the museum photographer, Mr. M'Googan. Having 

 made arrangements with the persons interested, instructions were 

 given for removing it, and the work was carefully and successfully 

 carried out by Mr. de Sales, the foreman of the Muaeum workshops, 

 with a party of carpenters and labourers. 



The account given by the sand-diggers of the circumstances under 

 which they made the find was as follows. They stated that in work- 

 ing at a face of the sandpit they came upon a vertical stone slab, 

 which fell out when they had cleared it, disclosing the cist and the 

 earthen vessels in it which they took out to try to sell. 



To prepare it for removal the sand was dug away on the remaining 

 three sides, leaving the cist in a mass which stood alone, measuring 

 about three feet six inches by three feet, the surface of this mass not 

 being disturbed. A complete casing of two-inch planks was bolted round 

 the mass, which was then carefully undermined at about eight inches 

 below the floor of the cist, and the whole mass then tilted backwards 

 till it lay upon its back, and the casing was then completed round the 

 end which had been the bottom of the mass. The whole, which 

 weighed about three tons, was carefully placed upon a float. 



Very heavy showers fell constantly during the days that the 

 operations lasted, which added considerably to the difficulties sur- 

 mounted by our foreman and his party, and the drawing of the whole 

 float out of the sandpit on rough ground was no easy task for four 

 horses. 



The whole arrived safely at the Museum, and I saw that the stone 

 chamber had not been shaken. 



It has now been set up in the principal room containing the Irish 

 antiquities, and the earthen vessels replaced in their original positions, 

 as described to me and to Mr. Buckley by the finders. This is shown 

 in Plate X. 



The dimensions of the cist are : — From back to front seventeen 

 inches on one side and twenty-four on the other, width in front 

 sixteen inches, and at the back nineteen inches ; tlic height in the 

 centre is nineteen inches. 



The bottom and the four sides consist each of a slab of stone from 

 two to four inches thick ; the bottom slab is broken in two, and may 

 have been broken before it was used. The cover consists of a single 

 stone, the smaller end of it being to the front ; smaller pieces of stone 

 are laid over the open joints between the cover-stone and the sides, 

 giving somewhat the appearance of an arch. 



