inscriptions from dealers in British chalk, and Pliny, writing of the
finer quality of chalk (_argentaria_) employed by silversmiths,
obtained from pits sunk like wells, with narrow mouths, to the depth of
a hundred feet, whence they branch out like the adits of mines, adds,
"Hoc maxime Britannia utitur." [Footnote: Roach Smith, _Collectanea
Antiqua_, vi. p. 243, "British Archaeological Assoc. Journal," N.S.,
ix.-x. (1903 and 1904).]

In Cornwall, moreover, there are what are locally called _fogous_.
These are either excavated in the rock with passages leading to the sea
or to houses, or else they are built of stone slabs standing erect,
parallel and covered with other slabs leading to chambers similarly
constructed, and all buried under turf or sand. Of the former
description there is a very interesting example at Porthcothan in S.
Ervan; of the latter the most remarkable is at Trelowaren. The former
may have been excavated by smugglers. An interesting account of the
excavation of two caves at Archerfield, in Haddingtonshire, is given in
the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for 1909.
Both caves are natural, but one had been walled up in front, with a
doorway and window and with oven; both had paved hearths in the centre,
and there was evidence that they had been tenanted some time after the
Roman occupation of Britain, as among the fragments of pottery found
was some Samian ware. It would appear that both had been inhabited
simultaneously, but not consecutively, for a lengthy period, and no
doubt can exist that they were mere rock refuges. In a note to the
article we read: "On the coast of Island Magee (Ireland) there is a
cave, south of the Gobbins, which has been frequently used as a place
of refuge. So late as 1798 it was inhabited by outlaws, who constructed
a kind of fortification at the entrance, the remains of which still
exist." [Footnote: Cree (J. R.), "Excavation of Two Caves," in