DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0118
100
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
being cut, but on getting through the mossy matter and searching
the original bottom, it was found that the latter was of boulder-
clay. The stratum of reddish sandy soil had, therefore, been
completely pierced in the original digging of the ditch. The
water following the spade so fast would render somewhat
unstable any dogmatic assertion, but all the indications at the
time favoured the correctness of the opinion of Mr. James
Russell of Longcroft, who was then on the spot in charge of the
operations, and who considered that the bottom could not have
exceeded 2 feet, or, at the most, 3 feet in breadth. The actual
lines of scarp and counterscarp, as plainly visible in the section, go
down in the steady slope of an unquestionable broad V. The
point at which Mr. Russell actually found the bottom, and which
he carefully fixed by putting on the spot a pole of known
dimensions, curiously enough was subsequently found to har-
monise exactly with the point of junction of the lines of the two
slopes of the ditch as surveyed'. It may be explained that,
owing to danger to cattle, the cutting out of the bottom of the
fosse had to be closed in very soon after it was made, but the
pole above mentioned, precisely recording the bottom, was left in
position. The berm at the edge of the ditch appears to have
been about 3 feet 3 inches higher than the top of the original
counterscarp before the upheaping of the outer mound, which
seems to have heightened the counterscarp about 3 feet. The
outer mound is large and prominent. Its flatfish summit
extends about 30 feet from the edge of the counterscarp; then
there is a rapid descent to the level, still quickly falling, of the
natural slope. It was at this section that, for the first time, a
complete through and through section was made—not only
across the ditch, but right through the outer mound. Of the
soils in the mound, the first is a thin surface growth or mould of
brown earth immediately under the grass. Below this is a
stratum of boulder-clay, at some points over 2 feet thick, which
extends right through the section of the mound from south to
north. Below the boulder-clay a reddish sandy soil is found,
the same as that which composes the scarp and counterscarp.
On a sloping line (forming the lowermost in the plate of
this section) the workmen found a slight difference in the
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
being cut, but on getting through the mossy matter and searching
the original bottom, it was found that the latter was of boulder-
clay. The stratum of reddish sandy soil had, therefore, been
completely pierced in the original digging of the ditch. The
water following the spade so fast would render somewhat
unstable any dogmatic assertion, but all the indications at the
time favoured the correctness of the opinion of Mr. James
Russell of Longcroft, who was then on the spot in charge of the
operations, and who considered that the bottom could not have
exceeded 2 feet, or, at the most, 3 feet in breadth. The actual
lines of scarp and counterscarp, as plainly visible in the section, go
down in the steady slope of an unquestionable broad V. The
point at which Mr. Russell actually found the bottom, and which
he carefully fixed by putting on the spot a pole of known
dimensions, curiously enough was subsequently found to har-
monise exactly with the point of junction of the lines of the two
slopes of the ditch as surveyed'. It may be explained that,
owing to danger to cattle, the cutting out of the bottom of the
fosse had to be closed in very soon after it was made, but the
pole above mentioned, precisely recording the bottom, was left in
position. The berm at the edge of the ditch appears to have
been about 3 feet 3 inches higher than the top of the original
counterscarp before the upheaping of the outer mound, which
seems to have heightened the counterscarp about 3 feet. The
outer mound is large and prominent. Its flatfish summit
extends about 30 feet from the edge of the counterscarp; then
there is a rapid descent to the level, still quickly falling, of the
natural slope. It was at this section that, for the first time, a
complete through and through section was made—not only
across the ditch, but right through the outer mound. Of the
soils in the mound, the first is a thin surface growth or mould of
brown earth immediately under the grass. Below this is a
stratum of boulder-clay, at some points over 2 feet thick, which
extends right through the section of the mound from south to
north. Below the boulder-clay a reddish sandy soil is found,
the same as that which composes the scarp and counterscarp.
On a sloping line (forming the lowermost in the plate of
this section) the workmen found a slight difference in the