"Being anxious to find whether the crannog rested upon a frame of timber, as a tradition of the place stated, and in order, if possible, to discover the internal construction of the work, I caused several trenches to be excavated in various places within the staked enclosure, and then, with a long crowbar, probed as far as that instrument would reach. The result was that we struck upon several large and solid pieces of timber, but in what position they were laid or whether in any way attached to others it was impossible to determine, owing to the influx of water, and to the spongy character of the bog-stuff, branches, etc., through which the iron pierced. Throughout the island--placed apparently without any attempt at symmetrical arrangement--were several stakes of the same kind, but larger than any found in the inclosing lines of piles. These timbers I believe to have been simply intended to act as stays or binders to the body of the crannog. They certainly did not indicate partitions. There was no trace of wattle-work, nor was there any example of timber presenting mortise-holes observable. "During the process of excavation it became perfectly manifest that the mound of the crannog was the work of three several periods. Within a couple of feet of the present surface, near the centre of the island, were found several large red sandstone flags, still exhibiting traces of the action of fire, and surrounded by charcoal, pieces of charred wood, bones of deer, sheep, pigs, goats, and other animals, many of them evidently split for the marrow. Here also were some fragments of pottery which had, no doubt, formed portions of culinary vessels; part of an iron knife of early type; a second and much smaller knife of iron, to which a wooden handle had been attached by rivets; a piece of iron spirally twisted; a nail or pin of the same metal, and a broken whetstone of the usual crannog class. I should here observe that for many years past the mound had been subjected to rude tillage, and consequent denudation, and that quern stones of the 'pot' and more ordinary type, belonging in all probability to this layer, had been found near the hearth, and but a few inches above it. These are now preserved in a neighbouring cottage. "The second hearth was about two and a half feet lower in the soil, and placed at a distance of a few feet south-east of the former, from which it scarcely differed, except that its vicinity was much more prolific in bones, broken pottery, charcoal, and other 'kitchen-midden' waifs.