Coventina's Fountain, by the Rev. J. C. Bruce, LL.D. 303 



the prefect of the first cohort of Batavians, who garrisoned the 

 camp of Procolitia. 



Mr Hugh Miller, residing at present at Wark, and a mem- 

 ber of the Geological Survey, was present during the ex- 

 cavation of the last foot and a half of the tank, and he 

 has favoured me with bis observations upon what he saw. 

 He was (I may remark) impressed witb the idea that the con- 

 tents of the well had been gradually deposited. I give his views 

 the more readily, as I am myself of opinion that the greater part 

 of the material had been thrown in at one time, and in a season 

 of panic. He says, " the remaining foot and a half of the anti- 

 quity-bed consisted of stones mostly waterworn, of angular 

 pottery, unworn bones, and coins, packed in a sandy matrix 

 almost like fragile articles in saw- dust — little space being 

 wasted, but close contact usually prevented. The packing 

 material and the stones formed somewhat more than half 

 of the whole mass, and were in the main deposited con- 

 temporaneously with the antiquities. The gravel, how- 

 ever, was not distinctly stratified." "Stratification" (Mr 

 Miller goes on to say) "is due to layers either periodically 

 spread or of alternating kinds ; a bed of which the separate 

 elements were deposited casually and one by one, would 

 be stratified only so far as the shape of articles might determine 

 their mode of settling down in water. In conformity with this, 

 all articles above the size of a small oyster were laid flat, the con- 

 cave sides of bits of pottery being directed upwards— the position 

 assumed by shells in sinking through water. One exception 

 noticed was a vessel containing coins, the shifting of which had 

 apparently kept it inverted. This vessel had been shattered and 

 its contents lay thick around it. A vase of Samian ware — filled 

 with sand —lay in a position beautifully suggestive of the sup- 

 porting medium through which it had sunk intact ; its heavier 

 parts were below and it had rested somewhat obliquely on the 

 uneven surface. Bones as well as pottery were extended hori- 

 zontally, the position especially of shoulder blades indicating 

 that they fell upon what they covered, and were then covered 

 in turn. The coins seldom lay flat, being small enough to feel 

 the roughness of the pebbly surface on which they sank. Their 

 position was that slanting one in which a penny dropped on a 

 gravel beach will generally be found." 



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