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whether the effects described might not have been produced 
by long exposure, Mr. M. stated that he believed that the 
French archaeologists who visited it were unanimously of 
opinion that it had been acted on by fire. There were also 
some vitrified camps of a similar character in the north of 
Scotland. 
Dr. Angus Smith said that he could certainly confirm from 
personal observation the opinion that Mr. Molesworth had 
given, by saying that vitrified forts generally, and probably 
always, are the result of premeditated firing. He had seen 
none in France, but their chief seat was in Scotland, where 
there were many. He had spent some time in examining 
Dan Macuisneachan or Macsniochan in Argyleshire^ and 
having seen the vitrified matter resting on the unaltered 
rock below, there was no room for belief that internal fire, 
to which some persons attributed the combustion, had ever 
interfered. Although Mr. Molesworth had not seen actual 
vitrified matter at the fort he visited at St. Brieux, but had 
found only granite which had evidently been acted on by 
fire, he (Dr. S.) had specimens where the vitreous matter 
had evidently been ready to drop at the moment of its cool- 
ing and congealing. Many tons of vitrified matter may be 
seen on the Top of Noath, north of Aberdeen, and on Knock- 
farrel, near Strathpeffer, and indeed in many places. On 
one in Hungary, described by Dr. Stuart of Edinburgh and 
others, the layers of charred wood are seen alternating with 
the stones. None of this kind were known to Dr. Smith as 
being in Scotland. He had analysed the vitrified matter 
of a small fort in Bute, and one on West Loch Tarbert, 
Argyle, and found an increase of bases over the matter of 
the stones not vitrified. The ashes of the combustible 
would no doubt help to vitrify the surfaces and so cause 
adhesion, whilst the heat which penetrated the whole mass 
often broke up even sandstones, and bent or made brittle 
almost every species of the mixed rocks used. There seems 
