20 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
stream which runs down the valley, and must be buried deep under 
snow for the greater part of the year. There are few large stones 
about it. We crossed several deep patches of snow to reach the 
place. I show on the map the exact position in which the iron is 
lying, but it may have travelled for a long distance. I should be 
much afraid that next summer the snow and ice may have carried 
it into the bed of the stream, where it would be next to impossible 
to find it, although the place where it is lying is nearly level, and 
it may lie for some years before reaching the stream. The iron is 
not, however, more than fifteen feet from it just now. 
On the mountain side, directly above, there are the remains of 
two small huts, a number of slabs of wood still lying about. The 
huts may be of recent erection, or they may be a hundred years old. 
Wood does not decay rapidly buried under snow, or in the clear 
been dug out, built and roofed with slabs of slate, a hundred years 
ago. They are on a little knoll, and not in the way of avalanches. 
The iron appears to me to be of fine quality. It has been 
battered up all along the top, which implies a certain amount of 
malleability, from which, and the rugged nature of the defective 
corner, I am inclined to think the percentage of carbon is low 
enough to suggest that it is wrought iron and not cast. I had a 
small file with me, and found the iron filed freely, and exposed a 
fairly homogeneous surface. The skin of oxide is very thin, and 
the file easily went through it. For all the time the iron has lain 
exposed, I do not think it has lost weight. 
The model I lay before you is fairly accurate, as I took the 
various dimensions, and the rubbing I made with a piece of char- 
coal, picked up in the woods on my way to the spot, upon a piece 
