_Drumgay_ (_the ridge of the geese_) lies nearly four miles to the north of the town of Enniskillen, and separated from the northern shore of Lough Erne by a narrow belt of land. This sheet of water is completely land-locked; there are in it three islets, and the south-eastern shore has a projecting point of artificial construction that becomes an island owing to the rise of water in winter time. Plate XLII., No. 1, conveys an excellent idea of the general aspect of the lake, and of the position of the islands; the large wooded one, situated near the centre, and now known as “Bone Island”--although its older appellation appears to have been “Cherry Island”--is constructed of beams of oak, ash, and pine, laid in rough blocks, radiating from a centre to the edge of a circle formed of stakes set in the ground, the diameter from north to south being one hundred and five feet, but from east to west a few feet less (plate XLII., No. 2). When the lake is at summer level the encircling piles are plainly visible; they had been roughly trimmed with an instrument of metal; the longitudinal cuts measured nearly a foot, and some of the piles were of oak (plate XLII., No. 7); they had no slope outward, and only at a few points did the rough wood and small branches usually interwoven with them still remain in position. From a point near the centre of the crannog, in a direct line to the eastern shore, a trench was dug; it commenced in the centre, was cut outwards to the water’s edge, and thus prevented sudden flooding; a similar trench was subsequently made on the opposite shore. As the result of these excavations, a very distinct idea of the internal construction of the work was obtained (plate XLII., No. 4). The old crannog-builders appear to have selected a natural shoal in the lough as the scene of their operations. This shoal consisted of marl covered by a streak of whitish sand about four inches in depth; over the sand, to a height of six or eight inches, was a stratum of yellowish clay, which supported unhewn logs of oak and birch, together with an immense quantity of small branches, twigs, brambles, and small pebbles, all compressed into a peat-like mass about two feet thick; this was covered by two feet of earth, containing here and there layers of burnt clay and bones; the clay was mixed throughout with bones of animals greatly broken, articles of early manufacture, slag or dross iron, charcoal, and rough stones. The surface of the island was in many parts covered with flat stones of considerable size, and stakes larger than those which formed the outer circle, yet of the same character, were found here and there, even in the highest and most central parts; they were designed to stay and prop the work, for their points were deeply imbedded in the marl which formed the bottom of the lough. It was impossible to procure any perfect specimen of these supports, as the wood, softened by saturation, broke off on application of the slightest pressure.