386 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
traditions or annals of those very countries in which lake-dwellings 
were most abundant. To have rescued so singular a phase of 
human civilisation from oblivion is one of the greatest triumphs of 
pre-historic archaeology. I propose, therefore, to describe briefly 
the circumstances which led to the discovery of the sites of so many 
of these ancient dwellings, and to convey some general idea of the 
extraordinary wealth of archaeological material brought to light 
by subsequent investigations. 
The actual starting-point of lacustrine research may be dated to 
an incident which took place in Dublin upwards of half a century 
ago. It appears that early in the spring of 1839 curiosity 
was roused at the Museum of the Eoyal Irish Academy by the 
frequency of the visits of a local dealer offering for sale objects of 
a miscellaneous character, many of which were of rare antiquarian 
value. These objects were said to have been found in a peat-bog in 
the County of Meath, and their assortment in such a place seemed 
so strange to Dr Petrie that he resolved to go and visit the locality. 
Accordingly, he and Surgeon Wilde (afterwards Sir W. Wilde) 
started in search of the mysterious find, and were conducted to the 
peat-bog of Lagore, near the village of Dunshaughlin. Here, within 
the boundaries of a drained lake and under a thick covering of 
peat, was an artificial mound then partially exposed by peat-cutters. 
This mound had been well-known to bone collectors for upwards of 
ten years, during which time, it is said, they had dug out and ex- 
ported to a factory of bone manure in Scotland no less than 150 cart- 
loads of bones. The mound was of a circular shape, slightly raised 
above the surrounding plain, and measured 520 feet in circumfer- 
ence. Along its margin were “ upright posts of black oak, measuring 
from 6 to 8 feet in height ; these were mortised into beams of a 
similar material, laid flat upon the marl and sand beneath the bog, 
and nearly 16 feet below the present surface. The upright posts 
were held together by connecting cross-beams, and fastened by large 
iron nails.” 
That the nature of this mound was correctly interpreted by these 
eminent archaeologists may be gathered from the abstract of Sir 
William Wilde’s paper on the Lagore crannog in the Proceedings of 
Irish Academy for 1840, from which the above extract is taken. 
It would appear, however, that no great efforts were made to secure 
