222 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



In two of the above specimens one cranium was approximately dolichocephalic, 

 another brachycephalic, but the proportions in the latter may have been modified 

 from the fracture of the basis cranii. 



Prehistoric Mausoleum. Table VI. 



In November 1865 I accompanied the late Sir J. Y. Simpson to SeaclifF House, 

 North Berwick, to inspect a structure, containing human skeletons, which had 

 been exposed by the late proprietor Mr J. W. Laidlay, in the course of excavating a 

 deep pit for the construction of an ice-house, in the policy adjacent to the mansion- 

 house. In notes made at the time I stated that the pit was dug in a mound of 

 sand higher than the level of the surrounding ground. In the middle of the mound 

 the roof of the structure had been brought to view 6 feet below the surface, and in 



Fig. 30. — Section of Mausoleum, Seaelifl'. • 



the further process of excavation one of the walls, which I may call the front wall, 

 had been uncovered. This wall had fallen down before our arrival, and the interior 

 of the structure was partially disclosed. 



The sand above and around was somewhat stratified. The walls of the structure 

 were built of fiat flagstones superimposed on each other, without any trace of 

 intermediate mortar. They enclosed a four-sided, low, rectangular chamber longer 

 in one diameter, the transverse, than in the other or antero-posterior direction. 

 The roof was vaulted and formed of flat stones, placed almost horizontally, and 

 arranged in five rows, which converged across the transverse diameter of the 

 chamber. The top of the wall on each side supported the outer row of the flat 

 stones of the roof, which in their turn supported the second roAv, and on these again 

 the stones of the middle row rested (fig. 30). 



The interior of the chamber exposed by the falling down of the front wall was 

 seen to be occupied with sand, which had apparently entered through the inter- 

 spaces between the stones. For the most part the sand was loose and easily taken 

 out, but near the floor it was more compact, blackish in colour, and so much inter- 

 mingled with the skeletons resting on the floor as to interfere with their removal. 



