NOTE ON CINEKAKY VASES. 97 



Plane (occidentalis), 25 yards E.N.E. from House. Girth at 

 a height of 5 feet, 7 feet 1 inch : spread of branches, 

 considerable : height of tree, 53 feet. 

 All suffering from smoke. — (Sept. 27, G. C. Atkinson.) 



VII. — Note on Cinerary Vases found at Humoledon Hill, near 

 Sunderland. . 



During the excavation of a new reservoir for the Sunderland and 

 South Shields Water Company, on the summit of Humbledon 

 Hill, two vases containing charred and broken bones were met 

 with, but being in an exceedingly brittle state, were much broken 

 by the workmen before being noticed. They seemed to be hand- 

 made and dried in the sun, but the contained bones were so 

 comminuted that it is extremely difficult to say whether or not 

 they are partly or altogether human. The vases are marked 

 with a rude zig-zag ornamentation, and were found in an inverted 

 position ; near them were two skeletons of great size, and a short 

 iron knife with a carved handle. The Rev. Canon Greenwell, 

 we believe, considers the larger of the two vases to be of a very 

 rare description, having been found in only one other part of 

 England. The fragments into which they were unfortunately 

 brokcn have been carefully pieced together, and placed in the 

 Sunderland Museum. 



At the Marsden Meeting of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field 

 Club, on the 9th of October, 1873, Mr. E. C. Eobson described 

 the two vases and the circumstances of their discovery, and at 

 the same time set before the members his own speculations as to 

 their contents, in the following lines : — 



What bones be these consigned to rot, 

 (Not in a box, the common lot), 

 But pickled in this weird old pot ? 

 Chopped, too, so small, you scarce can toll 

 Digital chips from clavicle ? 

 Some chief mayhap of olden days 



