Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/69

Rh between ten and eleven feet from the summit, and from one to two feet above the undisturbed skeletons. Examination with the naked eye was sufficient to establish the presence of wood charcoal, in more or less minute fragments. This was made still more evident by examination under the microscope; by the aid of which no trace of bone ashes could be detected, though numerous granules of a calcareous matter and of sand were mixed with the charcoal; which, as I am informed by a friend, who has had much experience in the microscopic examination of wood, is most probably that of the birch or alder and willow. Chemical examination served to confirm the conclusions derived from observation with the microscope. In three places, however, in or near this seam, large portions of human bones which have been burnt were found. There is some reason to think that these bones, which consist of parts of the cranium, the femur, and some other bone, had been originally deposited in the urn. Additional traces of cremation were afforded by a few small black and moist deposits, observed here and there in the central part of the tumulus, amongst the charcoal of which, distinct and abundant traces of burnt bone were observed under the microscope.

In another place, about two feet above the black seam just described, to the west of the centre of the tumulus, an irregular layer of limited extent, of a dry friable black matter, was found, which is obviously a vegetable charcoal of some kind. Viewed under the microscope, this substance exhibits a distinctly fibrous character, and the fibres are marked transversely by delicate cross lines. The most probable inference is that it is the charcoal left after the combustion of the twigs of some tree or shrub.

About eighteen inches above the black seam, in the centre and on the west side of the mound, another seam of a reddish-brown, earthy matter, from one to two inches in thickness, was observed. This substance has all the appearance of being earth, containing a very large proportion of rust of iron; and, being examined chemically, was proved to contain a very large amount of that metal. A doubt indeed can hardly remain that this red seam has originated in the gradual decay and oxidation of portions of the old iron already described, and which, at some period, had been deposited at this level.