50 ALDERNEY ARCHiEOLOGY. 



west. They had apparently been in coffins, as some decayed 

 wood was found around them, a portion of which I have sent 

 on. They were also covered and surrounded with stones. 

 Some were beach pebbles which had been rounded by the sea, 

 and others in the rough quarried state : the stones averaging 

 about 6 or 8 inches over. These two were found with rings 

 around the necks, one of which was preserved in good 

 condition, but a portion of the other had corroded, and some 

 part of it had become attached to the collar-bone. They were 

 found at a depth of about three feet six inches below the 

 surface, in good clean sand. 



About a foot or so below this, a small urn containing 

 charred bones was found ; this has been forwarded with the 

 bones, just as found. 



Skull number 3 was found some 10 or 12 feet from the 

 other two, and about five feet deep, a'so in sand. No ring was 

 found on this. Over the head was found a rough fiat stone 

 about one foot six inches by one foot by three inches. There 

 were no chisel or other marks on this stone, and it had not been 

 shaped in any way. The workmen broke up a lot of the bones 

 in removing them, as they were very much decayed. Moreover 

 the whole of the bones were not removed, as the trench in 

 which they were found was only just over two feet wide, and 

 ran across the bodies. 



Several fragments of Pottery have been forwarded, but no 

 pieces of rusty iron were found. An ancient bronze coin has 

 also been forwarded : this was not found with the bodies, but 

 about 120 feet from them, within the enclosed area of the 

 station, and near the surface of the ground. 



As the excavations for the drain have not yet been 

 completed from the station to Longy Bay, it is quite possible 

 other items of interest may yet be found. 



(Signed), T. MITCHELL, F.W. 



The Superintending Civil Engineer, 

 Portland Breakwater. 



Guernsey, 20th May, 1905. 

 Sir, 



I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 

 letter of the 19th inst. announcing that the Lords Commis- 

 sioners of the Admiralty have been pleased to accede to the 

 request that the ethnographical relics recently discovered in 

 Alderney might be handed to the Guernsey Society of Natural 

 Science, for deposit in the Guernsey Museum. And I have 

 also to thank you for copy of the Report describing the 

 manner in which the relics were discovered. 



