394 On some Pre-historic Antiquities. By Dr Hardy. 



coat of gravel and boulders on its ridge than that on the 

 opposite side, and once had a sandstone quarry in it, whence 

 the stones in the dyke of the field were got. It is marked 

 erroneously as "Gravel Pit" in the Ordnance Sui've}' Maps. 

 The ridge terminates in a point, which, from its shape and 

 verdure, was called "The Grreen Sneep." [German, schneppe, 

 a bill or beak, heace Snipe, the bird so called. In Swedish, 

 snip is the tip or extremity.] It is now cultivated, except on 

 the S.E., where its steep bank, which has a conspicuous 

 projecting summit, is covered with a thicket of Blackthorn 

 and Dog-Rose bushes, intermingled with Oaks, Hazels, and 

 Hawthorns. The Oaks predominate, and hence its name, 

 "The Oak Brae." It has a legendary interest relative to an 

 unfortunate fishermen family that, within the recollection of a 

 past generation, occupied a house or fishing station on the 

 northern side that furnishes the slab graves. The site of the 

 house was said to be recognisable by the number of sea-shells 

 scattered about the place, which I have never been able to 

 observe. [An old greenstone small quern was, however, picked 

 up at the bottom of the field.] The occupants were named 

 Cargill, not a common surname here, and they drew up their 

 fishing boat in a retired creek at the back of the eastern 

 side of Siccar Point, where there is a confined sheltered strip 

 of sand and gravel. During one of the furious and sudden 

 storms, to which this exposed part of the coast is liaV)le, the 

 boat's crew were wrecked and drowned on a reef of rocks 

 within the immediate view. It is, at full tide, always marked 

 by a ripple, but when the sea retires, the peak of our of its 

 rocks is distinguished by a bush of black sea-weed. It is 

 called Cargill's Buss (Bush) in memory of rhe unlucky familj'- 

 who all perished from being dashed upon it. 



This was related to me by the last of the old fishfii'raen of 

 this part of the district, who said with awe (for he himself 

 had encountered a similar disaster near the very spot, having 

 been driven away by a tempest across the Firth of Forth, 

 and been rescued on the coast of Fife) that it had b^en 

 foretold by a witch that whenever there should blow a gale 

 of wind, so strong as to strip the leaves from the top of the 

 trees of the Oak Brae, a boat's crew would perish otf the 

 coast here. [This happened on the l7th Feltruary 1827.] 



Since this was written, several of the bones found in the 



