332 Mr. R. Walker on Ancient Shell 



likewise exhibits bulges and an inequality of thickness of the 

 walls sufficient, I think, to militate against the idea of its having 

 been shaped on a wheel. The handle is not genuine, but has 

 been restored from pieces of the handles of other vessels*. 



Of the numerous fragments of pottery met with, it is to be 

 regretted that none are large enough to admit of a positive state- 

 ment as to what had been the prevailing size and shape of the rest 

 of these ancient vessels. There is one piece of the side of a vase, 

 however, that may assist us in arriving at something like a near 

 approximation to the size and shape of some of them at least. 

 This fragment has belonged to a vessel evidently of a somewhat 

 globular form, having a diameter at the mouth of about 9 inches, 

 from which it bulges out downward till it attains a diameter 

 of nearly 12 inches, whence it appears to have contracted in- 

 wardly. There are a considerable number of the bottom pieces of 

 these vases ; and although all are more or less broken, they show 

 in general a diameter of about 6 inches. If we were to assume 

 that the vessel under consideration had a like diameter at the 

 bottom, thus restored it would be a vase with a diameter at 

 mouth of 9 inches, at bulge 12 inches, at bottom 6 inches, the 

 height about 9 or 10 inches, with the lip projecting externally, 

 and the proportions and shape such as may be occasionally met 

 with in ancient pottery. The most, if not the whole, of this 

 pottery has been hand-made ; the irregular thickness of the walls 

 and its rude unsymmetrical appearance sufficiently attest this. 

 There are two or three pieces, however, which, although too 

 fragmentary to allow of a very decided opinion being pronounced 



* I am indebted to Dr. M c Kintosh for permission to describe and figure 

 this vessel. 



