438 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



they said, "^ould eat no other kind of shell fish hut the dog whelk, a 

 true exemplification of the common and widespread expression : — 

 " One man's meat is another man's poison." The earlier inhabitants 

 of Connemara may possibly have had similar tastes to those French 

 sailors, and we may therefore leave the question of the use of the 

 Pur2nira an open one for the present. We measured the large heap 

 of broken Pwr^jwr^ at Dog's Bay, which is shown in the illustration 

 to Mr. Bigger's Paper, and it was found to be 55 yards in leugth, 

 15 yards across the broad end, and 3 yards across the narrow end. 

 One square foot was measured, and 200 specimens were picked from 

 this space. Forty or fifty more might have been obtained from among 

 the sand which was now reached, and at the depth of two or three 

 inches further there was nothing hut sand. 



On the south side of ITannin Bay a large series of hut sites were 

 exposed. There were many hearthstones, shells, broken and split 

 bones, and other evidence of continuous settlement by people of the 

 Stone Age. Shells of the dog whelk were found here mixed with 

 other edible kinds, but no implements so well made or showing 

 artificial markings so good as those of Dog's Bay were found, though 

 broken and split specimens of native rock were scattered about in 

 considerable abundance. The sites near Ballyconeely Bay were 

 also examined, but no implement showing intentional dressing was 

 obtained. Other heaps of dog whelk in a broken state were found 

 here, besides broken rocks, bones of the animals used in food, and the 

 same species of shells as were found at Dog's Bay. JSTo pottery was 

 found in any of the sites, though we hope tliat on a further and more 

 extended search those sites may, like the more northern ones, yield 

 examples of the pottery usually found on these early Stone Age 

 settlements. 



The conclusion your Committee arrive at is that the various sites at 

 Dog's Bay, llannin Bay, and Ballyconeely are similar to sites found 

 in other sandhills in various places round the coast of Ireland which 

 have already been reported on to the Academy ; also that the inhabi- 

 tants of each district used the rocks found in their own neighbourhood 

 to make into implements. That rude flakes of ordinary igneous or 

 metamorphic rock could have been used as cutting tools by any people, 

 however rude, is hard to realize, though we can readily conceive the 

 use of well made flint implements ; but even in the JN'orth, where 

 flint is abundant, arrowheads, scrapers, and other implements are often 

 made of the igneous rocks of the neighbourhood. A series of such 

 implements from county Antrim is shown on p. 439. A flake 



