Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/447



object in stone, not unfrequently found in graves, and of which the use is now comparatively certain, is a rectangular plate usually round on one face, and hollow on the other, with perforations at either end. These plates are commonly formed of a close-grained green chlorite slate, are very neatly finished, and vary considerably in length and proportions.

The specimen shown in Fig. 353 is in the National Museum at Edinburgh, and has already been engraved by Sir D. Wilson, and roughly figured in the Wiltshire Archæological Magazine. It was found alongside of a human skeleton, in a rudely-vaulted chamber in a large tumulus on the shore of Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye. It is formed of pale-green stone polished, and has at one end an ornamented border of slightly indented ovals. In the same Museum is another of longer proportions, being 4 inches by 1 inches, formed of fine-grained greenish-coloured stone, and having at each corner a small perforation. It was found, together with an urn and the remains of a skeleton, in a short cist on the farm of Fyrish, Evantown, Ross-shire. It is shown in Fig. 354. There is also, in the same Museum, a fragment of a flatter specimen formed of indurated clay-slate of a lightish green colour, perforated at one end with three small holes. It was found in a stone circle called "The Standing Stones of Rayne." Another example was found in a grave at Dalmore, Ross-shire. It is, however, imperfect. In the Arbuthnot Museum, Peterhead, is another object of this class, 4 inches long, with a hole at each corner, and slightly rounded on one face and hollow on the other. It was found at Cruden, Aberdeenshire,