_Coin._--Mr. Robert Dunlop, iron-moulder, a native of Kilmarnock, but now residing at Airdrie, happened to visit his friends at the beginning of the year, and hearing of the discoveries at the Buston crannog, took the opportunity of visiting it. It was not, however, idle curiosity that prompted him, but a true spirit of inquiry, which often ere now led him to wander abroad as a humble student of nature, and on one occasion even as far as the famous Kent's Cavern. Being a Science teacher in Chemistry he was desirous of securing specimens of the different forms of vivianite, and so picked up from amidst a mass of broken bones and ashes that had just been wheeled from the midden, a lump of a bluish pasty substance, thinking it to be the amorphous form of this mineral. He carried this lump home with him for the purpose of analysing it, but, owing to other duties, was unable to do so till some three months afterwards. Having then taken a portion of the bluish mass, he mixed it with water in a test-tube, and on proceeding to dissolve it, noticed a yellow speck in this blue material. Curious to know what this could be he emptied the tube of its contents, and found what seemed to be a small gold coin doubled up. The slightest effort to restore the coin to its proper shape detached the portions, and almost at the same moment each portion separated into two thin plates. Mr. Dunlop then observed that between the two plates there was a layer of a dark brittle substance which he most judiciously collected into a small glass tube for further analysis. Having then carefully cleaned the four little plates with a weak solution of nitric acid, he had the satisfaction, on putting them together, of restoring the shell of an antique coin, which, as will be seen from Fig. 246, retains its impressions and characters on both sides wonderfully distinct. This valuable contribution to the collection I received at once from its discoverer, as well as the above narrative of its discovery. [Illustration: Fig. 246. Coin found in Buston Crannog.] [Illustration: Fig. 247.--For comparison, from Smith's _Coll._ vol. i. pl. xxii. 9.] Mr. Cochran-Patrick, M.P., to whom I immediately forwarded the different portions of this coin carefully arranged under a glass slide, as well as the glass tube containing remains of its core, submitted them to the consideration of J. Evans, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., so well known for his special knowledge of ancient British coins. The following interesting remarks by Mr. Evans on the subject have been sent to me by Mr. Cochran-Patrick:--