Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/254

226 upper part constructed with mortar, containing numerous sea-shells. A mass of stones and mortar surrounds the area, or summit of the mound, on which the walls of the chapel are constructed, apparently as a support to the foundation. The dimensions of the little building seem to have been about thirty or thirty-five feet, by twenty-two feet six inches.

These singular places of interment have, from time to time, been exposed to view, during stormy weather, or in consequence of a fall of the sand, as the mound is by degrees undermined by the sea. The number of graves which have been brought to view since the year 1823, when attention was first excited by any considerable discovery of human remains at this place, may be estimated at about sixty or seventy: the third part of the mound has already been washed away, and disappeared. The representation at the head of this notice, sketched during the last winter, exhibits the western side, with the shore of the bay of Towyn-y-Capel: a tier of several recently-exposed graves appears, about twelve feet above high-water mark: in the distance are seen the heights of Snowdon, and the Caernarvonshire hills, in the neighbourhood of Llanberis.

At the spot where this mound and chapel stand, the parish of Holyhead is divided from that of Rhôscolyn, by the isthmus which has been described, measuring, at high tides, not more than 300 yards in width. It may deserve notice, that, under the sandy shore of Towyn-y-Capel, lies a stratum of peat, which is used for fuel by the inhabitants of the Island: it extends nearly to low-water mark, and seems to indicate an encroachment by the sea, at this place, or possibly a depression of the strata, over which have been formed an accumulated bank and dune of sand by the action of sea and winds. The mound, on which the Chapel of