24 



On Thursday evening, 17th December, there were three papers 

 read. Mr. W. H. Patterson gave a full description of the effects 

 produced on the wires and poles of the Ulster Electric Telegraph 

 Company during the thunderstorm that occured on the 25th May 

 last, on which occasion some ten or a dozen of the telegraph poles 

 were split up and broken in a remarkable manner — in some cases 

 the pole was shattered into small splinters like matchwood. The 

 effect extended over a length of about 800 yards of the telegraph 

 line. 



Miss Wilson, of Ballymoney, read the following Paper : 

 " NOTES ON THE CRANNOGE OF BALLYLOUGH." 



The remarkable similarity which exists between the Lake habi- 

 tations of Switzerland and the Crannoges of Ireland cannot fail to 

 surprise the antiquarian, and has been well investigated by Sir 

 Charles Lyell, as well as by other writers. The earliest notice of 

 our Crannoges dates so far back as the 9th century. Some in the 

 North of Ireland are known to have been inhabited in recent times. 

 Even 150 years ago, we read that one was occupied ; but it is re- 

 markable that we find no notice of the exploration of one till the 

 year 1839, when the Crannoge of Lagore, in County Meath, was 

 carefully examined. In some cases the dwelling is constructed on 

 an artificial island formed of peat and timber, but in most cases 

 they were built on the shallows of the lake, which were high and 

 dry in summer, but became submerged in winter. Sometimes a 

 causeway led from the margin of the lake to the stockaded dwelling, 

 but more generally there was no means of access save by a boat. 

 Thus they were more secure from the attacks of enemies, as the 

 chieftains who inhabited them generally prohibited all boats from 

 entering the lough, except the one which belonged to himself. The 

 enclosure, formed by stockades of young trees, was, in genei-al, from 

 GO to 80 feet in circumference — sometimes oval in shape. The 

 stakes found in some Crannoges bear the traces of the hatchet, 

 which was probably the stone hatchet frequently found among the 



