. Edinburgh journal of science . Semicircle of Earlh 'fifi ''-ySginond's Huio be traced the limits of an ancient ting, where, in Pagan times, the functions of the priest and the judge were combined. But the most interesting remains of which Elsness can boast are the beacon cairns with which it is studded over; —many of these exhibiting unequivocal testimony of a vitrification quite as intense as is to be traced in any vi- trified fort of Scotland. -j- Iiay Elsness. These round cairns, of which I counted more than twenty, are from three to five yards in diameter, and elevated from two to three
. Edinburgh journal of science . Semicircle of Earlh 'fifi ''-ySginond's Huio be traced the limits of an ancient ting, where, in Pagan times, the functions of the priest and the judge were combined. But the most interesting remains of which Elsness can boast are the beacon cairns with which it is studded over; —many of these exhibiting unequivocal testimony of a vitrification quite as intense as is to be traced in any vi- trified fort of Scotland. -j- Iiay Elsness. These round cairns, of which I counted more than twenty, are from three to five yards in diameter, and elevated from two to three feet above the surface of the ground. The stone fragments, of which they are composed, which had evidently been collected from the beach, consist of what geologists would name an argillaceous schist; being, in this instance, an equi- valent of the Mansfield slate. Their fusibility they have chiefly derived from the felspar, or rather the alkali, which they con- tain. The bituminous matter which may often be found to enter into their composition, and which, if constantly present, would materially add to their fusibility, is but an occasional occurrence. Altogether, these mounds answer to the description given by Martin of the ancient beacons of the Isle of Karris, another early colony of the Norwegians: " There are,1' says this writer, " several heaps of stones commonly called Karnes on the tops of hills and rising grounds on the coast, upon which the inhabi- tants used to burn heath as a signal of an approaching ; Upon the possibility, however, of mere heather to produce an effect, which I have been hitherto only disposed to attribute to the combustion of large piles of wood, I will not yet give an opinion. Wood is only found in Orkney in a fossil state, that is, buried in peat; and whether this substance was cm- ployed, or peat itself, which is by far the most abundant fuel in Orkney, or dried sea ware, or heather, or a mixture of two or more of these co
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