3^6 Proc. B. N. F. C, 



head, I think— in the same position as the bronze stud on the 

 Irish example. The bronze stud is there probably as a defence, 

 but it is just possible that it may have been a survival (because 

 it was found practically useful) of some merely ornamental 

 appendage— -something to which a badge or distinguishing 

 mark may have been fixed. The upturned end would have 

 been very inconvenient if the wearer were liable to receive 

 downward blows, and its form almost suggests a mode of fight- 

 ing confined to missiles or thrusts. Its presence renders the 

 theory, to my mind, that it is a bascinet with a vizor removed, 

 an impossible one, though the author of it in the Ulster Jourital 

 gives it an apparently modern date by describing the bronze 

 additions as ornaments in polished brass. The helmet was 

 found in a crannoge. Some present may never have seen one, 

 so that I will just mention that it is an artificial island, of com- 

 mon occurrence in small Irish lakes, enclosed by a stockade of 

 oak driven into the bottom of the lake. Peat, bramble, heath, 

 and all other available materials were used to raise it above the 

 water level, until a platform appeared, 30 to 100 feet in diame- 

 ter, on which one or several rude dwellings were constructed. 

 These were sometimes connected with the land by a causeway, 

 but sometimes a fleet of dug-outs have been "found on the 

 banks. The crannoges have yielded a rich supply of ancient 

 Irish implements, and tools of stone, bronze, and iron. Now, 

 there is nothing in the fact of its having been found in this 

 position that would preclude its being of late date, even Eliza- 

 bethan, for Irish chiefs often refuged in them, and Sir Phelim 

 O'Neill was captured in one as late as the year 1642. The 

 fair inference, however, from its being found in this situation 

 would be that it was of an exceedingly early age, for, while 

 early Celtic antiquities are found in them by thousands, I am 

 not aware of anything much later, being of common occurrence 

 in them. In the old Celtic days they were the habitations, 

 while later they were at most only a temporary refuge, such as 

 a cave might be. Its association with flints and bronzes goes 

 far to paove its antiquity. The bronze work upon it seems to 

 be of the same composition, has the same beautiful finish, and 



