376 ArcJiceologia. 



hill, between Kirkliston and Cramond, the workmen came npon a 

 stone cist, the end of which is still to be seen projecting from the bank 

 over the carriage way. Several opinions have been expressed as to 

 the nature and antiquity of this object, and some time ago Professor 

 Simpson thought he had observed on the hill indications of an 

 ancient British settlement. Permission has been since obtained 

 from the proprietor to make explorations ; and the excavators, after 

 some search, came npon traces of three walls or ramparts, inclosing 

 a space near the western top of the hill, npon which were numerous 

 raised circular rings of stones, apparently the foundations of such 

 dwellings as our " rude forefathers " are known to have occupied. 

 On the following day Professor Simpson made a much more exten- 

 sive and systematic investigation, the result of which was that it ex- 

 posed portions of the faces of the three lines of walls, and one of the 

 raised circles inside. They also discovered an opening which had 

 formed one of the entrances to the encampment. The ramparts are 

 arranged in a fortified manner, as parallels, and towards that part 

 of the hill from which alone any attack could be made, the other 

 sides presenting natural barriers which, in those times, no invading 

 force could have hoped to overcome. Excavations were made be- 

 hind the old stone cist, which would seem to have been placed just 

 outside the walls, but nothing of interest was found there. Remains 

 of ancient settlements of this description are found in many parts of 

 Britain, but have not attracted much notice until a recent period. 

 They deserve close examination, but from our present knowledge 

 it would be very unsafe to pronounce any decided opinion on the 

 period to which they belong. Roman remains have been found in 

 some of those met with in the south of England. 



Among the objects of great interest which are found not uncom- 

 monly are the canoes, or boats made out of the solid trunks of trees, 

 which were used in the navigation of the rivers and lakes of our 

 island at some remote period, probably at different periods, but we 

 have no evidence as yet to show what that period was, or between 

 what limits it extended. It is a case in which evidence founded on 

 the depths at which these objects are found must be taken with great 

 caution, because the boats themselves were heavy, and from the 

 character of the locality in which they are found they would not 

 have had any natural resting place, but must have sunk gradually 

 in mud and a soft soil. A more than usually interesting discovery 

 of this kind has recently been made in Ireland. " In the latter part 

 of the past summer, as Charles W. Levinge, Esq., of Levington-park, 

 "Westmeath, and two of his sons were amusing themselves on Lough 

 Owel, they perceived on the southern shore, adjacent to the island 

 well known to sportsmen as Suthera Island, in five or six feet of 

 water, a black mass of matter, which, on close scrutiny, proved to be 

 a boat or canoe, of extraordinary length, in an almost perfect state. 

 Rafts Avere subsequently constructed, and by means of a windlass it 

 was safely floated to a convenient landing-place, and thence con- 

 veyed to Levington-park. The canoe is hewn out of one piece 

 of solid oak ; it is forty- two feet in length, spoon-formed at the bow, 

 and flat at the stern ; its breadth from gunwale to gunwale is forty- 



