DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0124
106
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
sand behind vividly distinguishing itself from the mossy mould
or overgrowth.
The grown-up bottom is entirely of moss—giving off, when
deeply cut, a somewhat rank odour, and having rotten remains of
trees in it. The conditions attending the clearing out of the bottom
were very much as described in Seabeg No. 2. When nearing
the bottom, water followed the spade too quickly for leisurely
examination. Mr. Chalmers and Mr. Neilson, as well as Mr.
James Russell, were present. When the moss was fairly pierced,
a stratum of blue clay was reached, which, from its character and
firm consistency, was believed to be the original bottom. This
was at a point 5 feet 10 inches below the present grown-up
surface of the centre of the ditch. The inference drawn thus
practically as to the original bottom was strongly corroborated
by the result of the survey, as shown on the plate of this
section, where the two converging lines of the sides o£ the
ditch, which began their descent 40 feet apart, meet at or
about this point.
The outer mound is large, broad, and prominent, as seen from
the north. It has a horizontal top for about 36 feet; then, with
a fall of about 6 feet 6 inches in 23 feet, its northern slope
reaches the natural level. A section made in the centre of it is
11 feet 9 inches in length, commencing at a point 10 feet from
the edge of the counterscarp and terminating at 21 feet 9 inches
from it. The section is over 4 feet deep. There is a dark line
which is 3 feet 3 inches below the surface at the south end,
3 feet 6 inches in the centre, and 3 feet 6 inches at the northern
extremity of the cutting. This line is found on all the sides of
the section—a regular line about ^-inch thick, generally reddish
in colour with a thin strip of brownish earth below, different
from the sandier earth which lies above and below it. Sometimes
this brownish line of earth is, like the dark line, about f-inch in
thickness; at other points the two together make one line of
f-inch thickness. Samples of the dark line were taken at three
points. One from a specially black patch on the line yielded
15'8 per cent, of vegetable matter. A second from a point where
the line is reddish in hue yielded only 3-49 per cent. A
third from the northern extremity of the cutting gave 12 per cent.
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
sand behind vividly distinguishing itself from the mossy mould
or overgrowth.
The grown-up bottom is entirely of moss—giving off, when
deeply cut, a somewhat rank odour, and having rotten remains of
trees in it. The conditions attending the clearing out of the bottom
were very much as described in Seabeg No. 2. When nearing
the bottom, water followed the spade too quickly for leisurely
examination. Mr. Chalmers and Mr. Neilson, as well as Mr.
James Russell, were present. When the moss was fairly pierced,
a stratum of blue clay was reached, which, from its character and
firm consistency, was believed to be the original bottom. This
was at a point 5 feet 10 inches below the present grown-up
surface of the centre of the ditch. The inference drawn thus
practically as to the original bottom was strongly corroborated
by the result of the survey, as shown on the plate of this
section, where the two converging lines of the sides o£ the
ditch, which began their descent 40 feet apart, meet at or
about this point.
The outer mound is large, broad, and prominent, as seen from
the north. It has a horizontal top for about 36 feet; then, with
a fall of about 6 feet 6 inches in 23 feet, its northern slope
reaches the natural level. A section made in the centre of it is
11 feet 9 inches in length, commencing at a point 10 feet from
the edge of the counterscarp and terminating at 21 feet 9 inches
from it. The section is over 4 feet deep. There is a dark line
which is 3 feet 3 inches below the surface at the south end,
3 feet 6 inches in the centre, and 3 feet 6 inches at the northern
extremity of the cutting. This line is found on all the sides of
the section—a regular line about ^-inch thick, generally reddish
in colour with a thin strip of brownish earth below, different
from the sandier earth which lies above and below it. Sometimes
this brownish line of earth is, like the dark line, about f-inch in
thickness; at other points the two together make one line of
f-inch thickness. Samples of the dark line were taken at three
points. One from a specially black patch on the line yielded
15'8 per cent, of vegetable matter. A second from a point where
the line is reddish in hue yielded only 3-49 per cent. A
third from the northern extremity of the cutting gave 12 per cent.