1905-6.] Human Skeleton , with Prehistoric Objects. 283 
Having carefully considered the conditions under which the 
above-described relics were discovered, I do not think we can 
legitimately associate any of the worked objects with the skeleton. 
There can be no doubt that the stone axe, the muller, and the 
grooved rubbing-stones were tools used by people of the 
Neolithic Age, and, being deposited in the clay at a higher level 
than the skeleton, we are entitled to assume, a fortiori , that the 
latter also belonged to the Neolithic Age. The skull appears to be 
similar to those described by Professor Boyd Dawkins from the 
sepulchral caverns and tumuli of North Wales as belonging to the 
dark, long-headed Iberians, of whom we shall have something to 
say later on. (See Early Man in Britain , chap, ix.) 
II. The Largs skull came into my hands in the following 
manner : — Happening to be at Largs on the 26th January 1906, 
I heard various rumours of the discovery of a stone grave, con- 
taining a human skeleton, which had been made a few days pre- 
viously on the estate of Haylee, the property of C. J. C, Douglas, 
Esq. While pondering over the best way of obtaining precise 
information on the matter, Mr Douglas and Mr Fryers, architect, 
called at my house to see if I would accompany them in making 
an inquiry into the details of the discovery. So we at once 
started on the business. In the Skelmorlie Mausoleum within the 
old kirkyard we were shown by Mr Paton a series of red sand- 
stone flags, some seven or eight in number, of which the walls of 
the cist had been constructed, as well as the covering-stone, broken 
into many fragments. We then drove to the site of the discovery, 
and finally to the office of the master of works, where were pre- 
served the remains of the skeleton and a solitary piece of pottery — 
the rest of the vessel having crumbled into small fragments at the 
time of its removal from the cist. The cist was uncovered close 
to the hedge bounding the east side of the Irvine road, while 
digging a drain from the new cottages now being erected on the 
ground opposite to May Street, and immediately below the site of 
a great chambered cairn which, upwards of a century ago, stood 
near Haylee House, and of which some of the stones of the 
chamber still remain in situ. The cist lay lengthways across the 
drain, the cover being 2 feet below the surface of the road, but, as 
was pointed out by one of the workmen, the latter was consider- 
