F O 
wall was raifed to a fufficient height. This opinion of 
the (tones'being thrown in without any order is thought 
to be confirmed by the circumitance of there not being 
any where a large one to be feen, nor a done laid in any 
particular direction, nor one piece which lias not in fome 
degree been affected by the fire. Mr. Williams men¬ 
tions a faCt tending to confirm his hypothefis, viz. of a 
brick-kiln fituated on the declivity of an eminence, fo as 
to be expofed to the wind, which, happening to rife 
brilkly one time when the kiln was burning, fo inoreafed 
the heat, that the bricks were melted, and ran, like lava, 
for a confiderable way down the hill. 
The opinion of Mr. Williams has been embraced by 
feveral other authors j particularly Mr. Freebairn, and 
Dr. Anderfon ; the latter having publilhed two treatife^ 
upon tliefe forts in the Archteologia. In the fame work 
too, there is a paper by the Hon. Daines Barrington, in 
which the author exp relies quite different fentiments. 
He obferves, that Mr. Williams and the other antiqua¬ 
ries, who fuppofe the walls in queftion to be the works 
of art, imagine that the reafon of their being conftruCted 
in this manner was the ignorance of cement, which in 
thefe remote ages prevailed in Scotland: but with re- 
fpeCt to this circumitance he fays, that if one fide of the 
wall only was heated, and that to any confiderable height, 
the matter in fufion would in all likelihood drop down 
to the bottom, without operating as any cement to the 
loofe Hones thrown in amongft it. This circumitance of 
tite walls being vitrified only on one fide is indeed re¬ 
markable, and takes place in molt of the forts of this kind 
to be met with at prefent : but with regard to it Mr. Bar¬ 
rington obferves, that he himfelf has been twice in the 
Highlands of Scotland, and has found very few hills of 
any height which were clothed with wood ; the trouble 
therefore of carrying it up to the top of fuch a mountain 
would be very confiderable. But to this it might eafily 
be replied, that we cannot by any means argue from the 
prefent Hate of the hills in the Highlands to their Hate in 
a very remote period of antiquity. At that time, it is 
neither impoflible nor in the leal! improbable that molt 
of the hills in Scotland were overgrown with wood; or, 
at any rate, there undoubtedly was plenty of peat, which 
is (till ufed there as fuel, and which affords fuch a llrong 
heat as to be advantageoully employed even in fmelting 
iron, as we are informed by M. Magellan. 
According to the treatife of Mr. Cardonnel, the larged 
of thefe vitrified forts is fituated on the hill of Knockrar- 
ril, to the fouth of the valley of SirathpefFer, two miles 
weft from Dingwall in Rofslhire. The inclofure is 120 
feet long and 40 broad within,the wall ; Itrengthened on 
the outlide with works at each end. The fort next in 
confequence to that of Knockfarril is fituated on the hill 
of Craig-Phadrick near Jnvernefs, “ which (fays Mr. Car¬ 
donnel) has this peculiar circumitance, that there appears 
to have been two vitrified walls quite round the area. 
The inner one feems to have been very high and ftrong; 
the outer wall but low : probably the fpace between was 
intended for fecuring their cattle, as there are no remains 
of dry-done buildings, fuch as are found near the refi. 
Several parts of the outer wall appear quite entire, (lick¬ 
ing to the firm bare rock, where it was firft run. The 
area within the inner wall is near eighty paces long and 
twenty-feven broad.” Of this an account is given in the 
Edin. Phil, Tranfadl. vol. II. clafs ii. art ix. by Alex¬ 
ander Frafer Tytler, efq. who vifited it in 1782. The 
other fortified hills mentioned by Mr. Cardonnel are thofe 
of Dun-Even in the Ihire of Nairn; Tordun Callle, near 
Fort Augultus ; and another on the weft fide of Gleneves 
in Lochaber, three miles to the fouth of Fort William. 
The Caftle-hill of Finhaven, in the county of Angus, has 
likewife fome confiderable ruins of the fame kind. 
Befides thele fortifications, the hill of Noth affords a 
remarkable appearance of the fame kind : of which Mr. 
Cordiner gives the following defeription : “ On the top 
of the hill there is an oblong hollow, as I could guefs, of 
R T. 587 
about an Englilh acre, covered with a fine fward of grafs: 
in the middle toward the eaft end of this hollow is a large 
and deep well. The hollow is furrounded on all fides 
with a thick rampart of ftones. On three lities of this 
rampart, from eight to twelve feet thick, is one com. 
pa< 5 t body of ftones and minerals which have been in a 
ftate of fufion, refembling a mixture of ftone and iron-, 
ore, all vitrified, calcined, and incorporated. On the 
north fide, the rampart conlifts of broken pieces of 
rock, which have the appearance of having been torn 
to pieces by fome extraordinary violence. If the cal¬ 
cined compact wall exifts under them, it is not at prefent 
vifible ” 
In the Phil. Tranf. of the Royal Society of London for 
1777, there is an account of Creek Faterick , there termed 
a volcanic hill near Invernefs , in a letter from Tho. Well; 
efq. to Mr. Law, F.R.S. in which the writer does not 
hefitate to pronounce this hill an extinguilhed volcano: 
and, having fent fpecimens of the burnt matter for the in- 
fpeftion of the Royal Society, the lecretary fubjoins a 
note to the paper, intimating that thefe fpecimens, 
having been examined by fome of the members well ac¬ 
quainted with volcanic productions, were by them judged 
to be real lava. Such was likewife the opinion of the 
late Andrew Crofbie, efq. who, in an account which lie 
gave to the Philofophical Society of Edinburgh in 1780, 
offered fome very curious conjectures with regard to that 
procefs of nature, by which he fuppofed the whole of 
this hill to have been thrown up from the bottom of the 
fea by the operation of inteftine fire. 
Mr. Tytler, however, agrees with thofe who think the 
vitrified ftruCtures to be artificial works; but he differs' 
from Mr. Williams and others, who think that they were 
vitrified on purpofe for cementing the materials together. 
His reafon for this is, that the number of forts that fhevr- 
marks of vitrification is inconfiderable when compared 
with thofe that do not. He therefore confiders the vitri¬ 
fication as accidental, and deferibes the manner in which, 
he conceives it muft have been accomplilhed. Among 
other obi'ervations in confirmation of his opinion, ho 
urges, that, in the fortification on Craig Phadrick, a large 
portion of tiie outward rampart bears no marks of vitrifi¬ 
cation. Mr. Cordiner, on the other hand, is of opinion,' 
that the vitrifications in queftion cannot have been the 
works of art, and ridicules the contrary hypothefis, though 
without adducing any argument againft it. Mr. Tytler 
concludes his dilfertation with a conjecture, which indeed 
leems well fupported, that the forts in queftion were con- 
(truCted, not only before the Roman invafion, but before 
the introduction of the rites of the Druids into Britain; 
as “there appears no probability that the inhabitants ei¬ 
ther lived under fuch a government as we know to have 
prevailed under the influence of the Druids, or had any. 
acquaintance with thofe arts which it is certain they cul¬ 
tivated.” On a view of the hypothefes which have agi¬ 
tated the learned on this obfeure fubjeCt, we can only 
obferve, that their arguments feem to have placed it in a 
ftate of equiponderance, and that the faCt remains open 
to the inveftigation of future fpeculators. 
FORT AUGUS'TUS, a fort of Scotland, in the county 
of Invernefs, at the fouth end of Loch Nefs: twenty-nine 
miles fouth-weft of Invernefs. 
FORT des AUTEL'S, a fort of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Channel: three quarters of a league north- 
welt of Cherburg. 
FORT BA'DENSTEIN, a fort of Africa, belonging 
to the Dutch, on the Gold Coaft. 
FORT BALI'ZE, a fort of the American States, at 
the mouth of the Milliflippi river, 105 miles below the 
city of New Orleans. 
FORT BLOUNT, a fort of the American States, on 
Cumberland river, in the ftate of Tenneffee. 
FORT BOUR'BON, a town of the illand of Martinico, 
taken by the Britilh troops on the 23d of March, 1794. 
FORT BREWTNGTON, a fort of the American. 
States^ 
