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XXY. 



IXYESTIGATION OF THE PEEHISTOEIC SETTLEMEIs^TS 

 I^EAK EOrXDSTOJS^E, COX^^EMARA. REPORT OE 

 THE CO:^MITTEE, COIs^SISTIXG OE MESSRS. "W. J. 

 KXOWLES, W. H. PATERSO^^, R. L. PRAEGER and 

 E. J. BIGGER. 



[Read Juxe 12, 1899.] 



TouE Committee, in company with several other gentlemen, and also 

 ladies, amongst whom were Messrs. George Coffey, F. C. Bigger, 

 ^. E. de V. Kane, John M. Dickson, E. T. Tatlow," H. L. Jamieson, 

 Robert Welch, John M'Xeill, Alex. G. Wilson, and J. jST. Halbert ; 

 also Hon. R. E. Dillon, Dr. C. H. Hurst, Mrs. Tatlow, Miss 

 Jamieson, and Miss M'Cormick, visited Roundstone at Easter, 1896, 

 for the purpose of making the appointed investigation. 



The day after our arrival we examined the sites near Dog's 

 Bay, which is distant fully a mile from Roundstone. The settlements 

 of this place, which have abeady been described by F.J. Bigger, m.e.i.a., 

 in an interesting paper, read before the Academy, in November, 1895,^ 

 extend along the shore, and into a small isthmus dividing Dog's Bay 

 from Gorteen Bay. Portions of old surface on the isthmus looked 

 promising and were first excavated, but they turned out to be very 

 barren of remains. The sites on the mainland close to the neck of 

 the isthmus gave better results, and yielded among other remains 

 several hammer-stones, rude implements, and large flakes of granite 

 and other hard crystalline rocks of the neighbourhood. The flakes 

 were so coarse and large, that it was not easy to convince anyone who 

 was accustomed to seeing flint implements in similar sites in the 

 North, that they were of artificial origin, yet a little examination 

 showed that the flakes, though rude, had bulbs of percussion, and exhibi- 

 ted sufficient evidence of having been struck in a systematic manner 

 from larger pieces of rock by hammer stones. On further examination 

 we found some of the flakes which showed undoubted workmanship 

 round the edges. A hasty survey of the place would show here and 

 there small clumps of stones which indicated the position of hearths 



^ Third Seiies, vol. iii., Xo. 5, p. 727. 



