190 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



Binns, W. Lothian. — In 1875 Sir Robert Dalzell wrote me a note on the 

 disclosure close to the House of Binns of a short cist, 2 feet 11 inches long, the 

 ends and one side of which were formed each of a single slab of stone, whilst the 

 other side consisted of the rock itself. The floor of the cist was without any slab. 



Torphichen. — In a sandhill near this town Professor Duns uncovered five cists, 

 one of which from its dimensions was a short cist and contained a human skeleton.* 



Threipland Farm, Elgin. — In 1869 Mr G. Allan, in opening a hillock on his 

 farm, exposed a short cist. The cover stone was about 6 feet long, 4 feet broad 

 and 1 foot thick ; both it and the side and end stones were rough slabs of sandstone. 

 The internal dimensions of the cist were 4 feet 2 inches long, 2 feet 1 inch broad 

 and 2 feet 1 inch deep, and the floor was a sandy clay. The cist was said to lie 

 west of south by east of north, and the head was at the south-west. In addition 

 to the human skeleton the cist contained an oval piece of flint, shaped like a spear- 

 head, flat and thin at the edges, 2| inches long, If inch broad, which was seen about 

 the middle of the right of the skeleton. The flint was presented to the Elgin 

 Museum, f 



Duns, Bemvickshire. — In excavating gravel near the railway station in 1863 

 a short cist was exposed, 4 feet long, 1J feet broad and 20 inches deep, which 

 contained an urn of the drinking-cup type and the skeleton of an adult, the brachy- 

 cephalic skull of which I described at the time,! and now on p. 193. 



In 1897 a cist which was said to be about 3 feet long, wider in the middle 

 than at the ends, and 2 feet deep, was discovered on the farm of Chapel, Duns. The 

 cover consisted of two massive slabs of sandstone, and the sides had smaller stones, 

 as well as the customary large slabs : the floor was the hard subsoil. No urn or 

 implement was found in the cist. A skull, much injured, and portions of other 

 bones were sent to me, but their imperfect condition did not permit a satisfactory 

 description. 



Roxburghshire. — At Kelso, in 1864, a short cist was exposed in the Knowes, 

 adjoining the Abbey .§ It contained an urn of baked clay which corresponded in 

 size and form to the largest urn, a beaker from Lesmurdie. No bones were procured 

 from the cist. 



Cavers. — In the same county a short cist was discovered in 1896 in a tumulus in 

 Belvedere Wood, on the estate of Mrs Palmer Douglas. It was carefully described 

 and figured by Dr David Christison. || The space for the cist had been excavated 

 in the solid rock, and one side and end were each formed of a single slab, whilst 

 their opposites consisted of smaller slabs : the bottom was composed of small stones 

 imbedded in clay. The cover consisted of two whinstone slabs, the larger of which 

 was 7 feet 2 inches long and 18 inches thick. The cist contained an unburnt 



* P.S.A.S., vol. xii, p. 405, 1878. t See idem, vol. xxii, p. 341. 



I Idem, vol. v. § See my description in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. vi, p. 18. 



|| Idem, vol. xxxi, 1897. 



