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 Fig. 34. — Wooden Dug-out Canoe found at Irlam. (Salford Museum.) I : 108. EARLY MAN covery becomes of special importance. It is known that dug-out canoes were used as late as the sixteenth century for special purposes. They have been found in various places, generally at considerable depths below the ground. That found at Barton-upon-Irwell (Man- chester Museum) was excavated at a depth of 27 ft. ; that from Irlam (Salford Museum) about the same ; those from Martin Mere were found 'in the peat' (one from Crossens is at Cam- bridge Hall, Southport) ; two from Preston (in the Harris Museum) at about 14 ft. ; while two were found near Warrington (in the public museum of that place) at about 1 8 ft. below the surface. These depths alone, whether caused by accumu- lation, or less often by the object itself settling in marshy ground, indicate in each case a proportionate antiquity. The canoe at Barton-upon-Irwell lay about 400 yds. from the present bank, of the river at a depth of 27 ft. It is 13 ft. 8 in. in length, with a breadth of 2 ft. 7 in. fore and 2 ft. 2 in. aft. It has suffered considerable damage, but its form may be gleaned from the accompanying diagram, fig- 33- There is a hoUowed log or small trough, sometimes thought to be a dug- out canoe, from the same site, also in the Manchester Museum. It was found in 1889 in the TrafFord Hall cutting of the Manchester Ship Canal, about six or seven hundred yards east of Barton Bridge. It is presumably modern. The canoe from Irlam, fig. 34, now in the Salford Museum, is some- what similar in general character. The stem is more curved : the bow does not project as a nose like the former example, and it has been pierced at some time for a painter. Its greatest length is 9 ft. 6 in., width 2 ft. 4 in., and depth 1 1 in. It was found in cutting the Manchester Ship Canal, 25 ft. from the surface. Eight canoes were recorded by Leigh ^ to have been found in the peat of Martin Mere. One from this vicinity is in the Cambridge Hall at South- port. It is longer than those previously described, measuring 1 6| ft. over all, with a greatest width of 3 J ft. and depth of i ft. It differs also in form (see fig. 35), tapering regu- larly towards one end. Both ends are narrowed, and the bottom is round. It seems to have been patched at some time with pieces of lead, and it has been suggested that the monks of Burscough, whose house stood on the lake, may have used Fig. 35. — Dug-out found at Crossens. (Cambridge Hall, Southport.) i : 2 1 6. 1 Leigh, op. cit. bk. I, pp. 17, 181 I 249 32