earth and pieces of bone. Above were an implement and some fragments of
flint.

On the other side of the island there were still in 1860 remains of
eight circles, five of sandstone and three of granite, quite close to
one another. The diameter of the largest was 63 feet, and the highest
stone reached 18 feet. One of them was a double ring. In four of them
were found cists containing pottery, flint arrow-heads, a piece of a
bronze pin, and some fragments of bone. Others appear to contain no
cists.

In the other islands of the west coast few circles seem to remain; there
are, however, one at Kirkabrost in Skye, and another at Kingarth in
Bute.

At Stromness in Orkney is the famous circle called the Ring of Brogar.
It originally consisted of sixty stones forming a circle 340 feet in
diameter, outside which was a ditch 29 feet wide. In a direction 60°
east of south from the centre, and at a distance of 63 chains, is a
standing stone called the Watchstone, 18 feet high, and 42 or 43 chains
further on in the same line is a second stone, the Barnstone, 15 feet
high. To the left of this line are two stones apparently placed at
random, and to the right are the few remaining blocks of the Ring of
Stenness, somewhere to the north of which was the celebrated pierced
block called the "Stone of Odin," destroyed early in the last century.
At a distance of 42 or 43 chains to the north-east of the Barnstone lies
the tumulus of Maeshowe. This tumulus conceals a long gallery leading
into a rectangular chamber. The walls of this latter are built of
horizontal courses of stones, except at the corners, where there are
tall, vertically-placed slabs. The chamber has three niches or recesses,