38 Antiquarian Notes. 



Antiquaries of Ireland, descriptive of the settlements of the flint- 

 working men in the County Antrim. At first my efforts to find 

 anything of interest were fruitless, as the hollows formed in the 

 blown sand by the action of the wind, so productive to the ex- 

 plorer at Portstewart and Whilepark, yielded nothing at Bush- 

 foot but sea-worn pebbles and land shells. On questioning Mr. 

 Thompson, the tenant of the farm through which the electric 

 railway passes adjacent to the river, I learned that during its 

 construction several hearth sites were exposed and pieces of 

 pottery and bone found. The best of these specimens form 

 part of the valuable collection of Miss Steen, Sharvagh, Bush 

 mills. He also pointed out the place where nearly twenty 

 skeletons were found, close to a stone circle which has been 

 covered of late years with blown sand. I made some search at 

 this spot, and dug up the bones of a child, associated with 

 numerous sea shells of an edible kind, pottery, and small frag- 

 ments of iron slag, indicating that the settlement had been 

 occupied at various epochs. As no flint implements turned up 

 I directed my attention to another site, on the Causeway side 

 of the Bush, close to the railway bridge, where a cutting through 

 a gravel bed had laid bare a section of the ancient ground 

 surface about four feet below the present sward. On digging 

 into the dark unctuous sand, mingled with charcoal, which 

 indicated an ancient hearth, a number of flint flake knives were 

 found, and one or two scrapers. A large part of the site had 

 been already removed, but on excavating into the bank a 

 remarkable feature was disclosed in the form of a low wall of 

 sea-worn stones, arranged evidently around the enclosure of the 

 primitive dwelling to prevent the sand falling in. It would 

 appear as if the level of the floor had been lower than the 

 ground surface by perhaps a foot or more. This was the method 

 used by the primitive Ainus of Japan in the erection of their 

 huts, as shall be described shortly. A few yards from this 

 hearth, another was laid bare some days after by a fresh removal 

 of gravel from the same hill. It was close to the surface of the 

 ground, and covered with a thick growth of the sea rose. At 



