Of the crannog, the diameter is about sixty feet; its exterior face so worn away by wave action, that the traces of the outer row of piling are now some feet distant. The Irish-speaking natives still call it the Crannogh, and in English designate it “the island”; its surface is covered with a luxuriant growth of bilberry and Osmunda regalis. An excavation showed—
1. A natural growth of peat, about three and a-half feet thick.
2. A layer of branches.
3. Small stones.
Fig. 227.—Miscellaneous wooden Objects. 2, 3, 5 one-eighth real size; 6 one-fourteenth real size; 1, 4 one-sixteenth real size.
Some feet from the exterior face of the crannog, on the side shown in [fig. 226], numerous pointed ends of stakes, evidently dressed with a sharp metallic tool, were extracted from the mud ([fig. 227, No. 1]), and a large portion of another ([No. 4]) lay on the beach. A fragment of a beam, mortised at one extremity, was found in close proximity ([No. 6]); its quadrangular incision, which did not quite penetrate the plank, was saucer-shaped at bottom, and an unique arrangement of a peg-hole in each corner shows the firm manner in which it had been originally secured: it probably belonged to the framework of the crannog hut. Not far from this was part of the blade of a canoe paddle ([No. 5]), the bottom of a wooden vessel, one side bearing traces of fire ([No. 2]), and a stave (most likely of the same utensil), pierced for reception of the handle ([No. 3]). There were also several nondescript portions of worked timber, numerous chips, pieces of charred wood, and a couple of white sling-stones, consisting of water-worn sea-beach pebbles. Deeply imbedded in the mud was a large whetstone ([fig. 228]), much worn on three sides by the friction of whetting, and bearing deep and sharp indentations produced by the edges of metallic tools; the fourth side presents the natural surface of the stone.
