42 
An account was given of various excavations, made in 1856, in 
some very ancient places of sepulture at Ak-tchai-kioi, and among 
tlie ruins of Dardanus. In the former of these cemeteries the 
bodies had been buried, entire and unburnt, in very large earthen 
urns, along with paterae and lachrymatories of materials and 
forms indicating the earliest stage of Grecian art. The cemetery at 
Dardanus was more modern ; and the bodies, which had usually 
been burnt, were here found in rectangular cysts, built of flat 
stones or tiles, and carefully cemented. The pottery found at 
Dardanus was often of very elegant workmanship, and the painted 
or glazed figures upon it less rude than those observed at Ak- 
tchai-kioi ; but it was singular that no medals, nor coins, nor even 
traces of inscription, had been found among these tombs. 
2. On the Composition of the Building Sandstones of Craig- 
leith, Binnie, Gifnock, and Partick Bridge. By Thomas 
Bloxam, Assistant Chemist, Laboratory of Industrial Mu- 
seum. With a Preliminary Note by Professor George 
Wilson, Director of the Industrial Museum. 
Preliminary Note. 
In prosecution of the analyses of Scottish building stones com- 
menced last winter in the laboratory of the Industrial Museum, 
by the examination of the bed-rock from Craigleith quarry, four 
more sandstones have been analyzed since May 1856 by Mr 
Bloxam. The stones in question are the Craigleith liver-rock, and 
the Binnie sandstone, from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and the 
Gifnock and Partick Bridge stones, from the neighbourhood of 
Glasgow. 
As in the ease of the coarser Craigleith rock, the chief points in- 
quired into, in the case of each stone, have been the following: — 
1. The specific gravity. 
2. The amount of water naturally present. 
3. The amount of water absorbed by entire aqueous immersion under 
air. 
4. The amount of water absorbed by partial aqueous immersion, dis- 
tinguished in the sequel as absorption by “ capillary attraction.” 
5. The amount of water absorbed by entire aqueous immersion under 
the air-pump vacuum. 
6. The amount of substance soluble in pure water. 
7. The amount of substance soluble in water saturated with carbonic 
acid. 
