108 MEETINGS. 



ground some feet below the surface, even during the summer 

 season ; miners pass through clear ice when sinking shafts, 

 after clearing away moss and upper earth. Mr. Renouf also 

 thoughtfully forwarded specimens of plants in bloom in that 

 region. 



Mr. Derrick then gave some interesting information on 

 Vitrified Forts, his attention having been drawn to them 

 during a tour in Scotland in 1901, when he visited one at 

 Knock Farrel, near Strathpeffer, north of Inverness. They 

 are numerous in north Scotland, and occur in Brittany, but 

 none are recorded yet from England. They resemble the hill 

 forts so common all over England, but the ramparts of these 

 consist of earth, whereas those of vitrified forts consist of 

 stones, usually broken to a moderately small size. The 

 ramparts have then been subjected to heat sufficient to melt the 

 siliceous particles of the stone, which forming a kind of glaze 

 cements the material together. Mr. S. Baring-Gould in his 

 book entitled "Brittany," published in 1901, describes one at 

 Peran, near Poulfragan, near St. Brieuc. Like all the Scotch 

 ones it is elliptical, being 400 feet by 330 feet. The rampart 

 is of loose stones put together without order, 12 feet wide at 

 base, 4 feet at top, 7 feet high. The hearths on which the fires 

 were kindled were from 12 to 16 feet apart. Where the heat 

 was most intense there is a core of glass from top to bottom ; 

 where weak, there is a pudding of vitrified matter from 3 to 6 

 feet thick ; where insufficient, there is only a glaze on the surface 

 of the stones. Tradition says that fires were maintained for seven 

 years ; but experiment proves that fire in full blast for 15 days 

 would have produced like results. In Scotland, they are all 

 strengthened by one or more outer defences ; some have paved 

 causeways leading to the entrance. They show signs of two 

 periods of occupation. In exploring one at Inverfaragaig, 

 near Foyers, which is on a bare outcrop of granite rock 

 overlooking Loch Ness, they found in the centre a collection 

 of smoothed pebbles, which must have been carried up from 

 the lochside. Mr. Derrick's Scotch correspondent, Mr. T. 

 Wallace, of Inverness, says : " For what purpose the trouble 

 of carrying them up was undertaken, it is hard to say," he 

 suggests, " To please the bairns." But as exactly the same 

 thing occurs in the fort at Jerbourg, in Guernsey, Mr. Derrick 

 thinks they were to be used as weapons in defending the place. 

 The great question is : " To what period do these constructions 

 belong ? " There is a tendency, as with all antiquities, to refer 

 them to very ancient times ; but Mr. Derrick suggests that 

 they probably date from A.D. 50 to A.D. 500. They were 



