124 BRITISH ASSOCIATION TOE THE 



the arched tombs. As the hill was removed, platforms were scarped on the sides, 

 on which the earth was thrown up, a man being placed on each platform ; and as I 

 descended into the shaft, similar platforms of wood were slung from above. On the 

 twelfth day we reached a depth of 1 6 feet in the shaft, the portion of the hill removed 

 being 3S feet in length, 20 in depth, and 12 in breadth. The mouth of the shaft 

 hewn out of the rock, 3 feet in thickness, was 18 feet long by 12 broad. It then 

 took on a bell shape, the diameter of which was 22 feet, cut out in dark consistent 

 clay, a depth of nearly V feet. Beyond this the size of the shaft became a square 

 seven feet, cut out of successive layers of sandstone and calcareous clay. When we 

 had attained a depth of 30 feet in the 6haft, the labour of raising the earth became 

 very great; but by means of a block and shears, which Capt. Commerell, of Her 

 Majesty's ship Snake, very kindly fixed over the descent, the work was much facili- 

 tated, the earth being slung up in baskets, and the men ascending and descending 

 in the same manner. A few feet beyond the bones of the horse, and exactly in the 

 centre of the shaft, the skeleton of an adult female appeared enveloped in sea- weed. 

 Under the neck was a lacrymatory, and on the middle finger of the right hand a 

 key-ring. Three feet further we met a layer of human skeletons, laid head to feet, 

 the bones being herein excellent preservation, — as, indeed, we found them to be in 

 all places where the calcareous clay came into immediate contact with them. 

 There were 10 adult male skeletons on this spot, and separated by a foot of clay 

 between each. Five similar layers were found, being 50 in all. I may state that 

 toads in large numbers were found alive in this part of the pit. We had now reached 

 a depth of 42 feet in the shaft, the bones of another horse were turned out, and 

 then we came on loose sand to a depth of 5 feet. Six more skeletons were here 

 again exposed. The sides of the shaft were regular and smooth, the mark of the 

 chisel on the rock being as fresh as when first formed. Six feet more of the loose 

 sand being now taken away, hard bottom could be felt by the steel rod, and there 

 lay two skeletons, male and female, enveloped in sea-weed ; and in a large amphora 

 at the corner, which was unfortunately found crushed, were the bones of a child. 

 Some beautiful specimens of pottery, an electrine urn, much broken, lacrymatories, 

 beads and a few coins, were all that I got to repay my labours on this spot. I ex- 

 amined well on every side, and in the rock below, for a trap-door or concealed pas- 

 sage, and an abrupt perpendicular division in the natural strata or layers of calcareous 

 clay appeared to indicate the existence of such, but I found none. Everything during 

 the descent had promised so very favorably, that I fully expected to have found a 

 large chamber leading on from the termination of the shaft; but if such does exist, 

 the discovery of the passage to it utterly baffled all my researches. When the coins 

 I discovered are cleaned, I shall probably be able to fix a date to this wonderful place. 

 The deep fosse, the mode in which the skeletons were found at the bottom, the 

 5 discovered immediately above these, 50 about the centre, and the bones of the 

 horses, are exactly in harmony with the description of Herodotus of the mode in 

 which the Scythian kings were buried. The substance which I have called sea-weed, 

 from its bearing stronger resemblance to that production than anything else I can 

 compare with it, may possibly be the "grass" d-escribed by Herodotus as ased to 

 envelope the body. If such be the case, the description is in all respects exact. 

 There was now no time to enter upon fresh explorations. 



THE ARCTIC CURRENT AROUND GREENLAND, BY OAPT. IRLINGER, R. D. W. 



Many hydrographers assert that a current from the ocean around Spitzbergen 

 continues its course along the east coast of Greenland, and thence in a nearly 



