80 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



mound has been cut through, exposing the side and end of 

 a fine stone cist ; the hill, or cronk, about 5 feet high and 

 45 by 60 in diameter, shows in section a layer of rather 

 large, water-worn, white quartz stones over the cist, of 

 which the inside dimensions were 5ft. by 2ft. Tin., and 

 2ft. lOin. high. It had been paved with smaller rounded 

 white pebbles, from 2in. to 3in. diameter. The bones had 

 crumbled almost to dust. A flint core was met with in the 

 cist, and a rude scraper in the mound above it.* 



There are many small tumuli scattered all over the 

 Island. Whether these are Neolithic, Bronze, or even 

 later, cannot be determined from their exterior ; and, 

 while some probably belong to this earlier period, the 

 greater number of them which have been examined are 

 shown by their contents to be of the succeeding or Bronze 

 Age. The main distinction lies in the fact that Neolithic 

 burials were by inhumation, the body being seated or 

 doubled up in a cist formed of large slabs of local stone, 

 while in the Bronze period cremation became usual and 

 the incinerated bones were gathered into urns of baked 

 clay, often decorated with characteristic patterns, or, in 

 some cases, were placed in small chambers of slaty stone, 

 different in size and character from the cist of the earlier 

 period. A stone circle on Ballakelly, Santon, may be 

 Neolithic. It consisted of a double circle of large stones 

 of the local Santon granite, set on edge, of which enough 

 remains to show the original plan ; in the centre is a cist 

 also of heavy stones on edge — one of the stones of the 

 inner ring is ornamented in one corner by rows of small 

 cup-hollows, t A somewhat similar stone circle with 

 central cist is to be seen on Kerroogarrow, Grerman. 



In connection with these burials may be mentioned 



* Yn Lioar Manninagh, III., 373, 

 t Manx Society, Vol. XV. p. 98, and plates. 



