trees, the same outer circle or circles of palisades, the same underwater gangway, the same log-pavement, and the same circular breast-work surrounding it. Several fire-places were also found, one where smelting had evidently been going on, but regularly paved hearths as in Lochlee were nowhere seen. The traces of the hut or dwelling, however, were here more distinct, the door posts, &c., being found, but no conclusive evidence as to whether the platform originally contained one or more dwellings. Not more than twelve yards to the north of the crannog a large canoe in a tolerably good state of preservation, and bearing signs that it had been mended more than once, was found.

As will readily be supposed, the crannogs and their ‘refusebeds' were carefully searched for relics. The result was that they were found in great abundance and variety. Among them were stone hammers, heating-stones, whet-stones, polished celts, quern stones, flint flakes; bowls, plates, ladles, mallets, hoes, pins, and paddles of wood; needles, awls, chisels, and combs of bone; bronze fibulae, pins, &c.; iron axes, chisels, knives; a gold finger-ring, two plates of the same metal, which seem to have formed the shell of a forged coin; a ring of cannel coal; a bronze bridle-bit, two crucibles, and portions of a third; several jet ornaments; glass beads and fragments of pottery and leather. Besides these, were found the bones of the sheep, ox, pig, red and roe deer, and the tusks of a wild boar. So far as we can learn, however, no human remains have as yet been found in any of the crannogs.

The numerous questions which all these varied and interesting discoveries suggest, can here be only glanced at. First of all comes the question, By whom or when were these crannogs built? The fact that large iron nails were, in at least two instances, used in the construction of the Kilbirnie crannog, proves pretty conclusively that its builders belonged to what is usually termed the iron age, and to a period in that age when iron was comparatively plentiful. As to the rest, however, those in which iron was not so used, this, as yet apparently isolated instance, proves nothing. And again, admitting that the inhabitants of the Swiss lake-dwellings were Celts, it by

these dwellings, or were the only tribes that used them. It is quite as probable that they only adopted them, and that the inventors of these singular dwellings belonged to those nonAryan tribes who preceded them in their advance towards the West. Such, in fact, seems to be the clear teaching of the evidence to hand. Dr. Munro assumes that the builders of the crannogs he has done so much to bring to light, were undoubtedly Celts. We are not so sure that he is right. They may have been their builders, and they may not have been. There is little, and probably absolutely nothing, to show that they were. It seems to us much more probable that the original builders belonged to the Ivernian, or, at least, to the non-Aryan tribes of the neolithic age, who were pressed further and further to the west and north of Britain, by the successive Celtic immigrations, and who, as we know, were in possession of most of the country between the Clyde and the Solway Frith, both before and after the Roman invasion. The presence of stone and bone implements in the crannogs would seem to support this conclusion. On the other hand, the presence of bronze and iron proves nothing to the contrary, as it is quite probable, and, in fact, only natural to suppose, that the Ivernian or non-Aryan tribes would not be slow to avail themselves, as far as they could, of the superior civilization of their Celtic neighbours, though continually or for the most part at war with them.

But whoever they were, the builders of these ancient Scottish crannogs possessed no little patience, knowledge, and skill. Dr. Munro by no means overstates their case when he says:'To construct in ten or twelve feet of water, virtually floating over an unfathomable quagmire, a solid compact island, with a circular area of 100 feet or more, and capable of enduring for centuries as a retreat for men and animals, would, I daresay, be the means of eliciting from many an engineer of the present, a more frequent manifestation of the proverbial symptom of a puzzled Scotchman, than from these early brothers of the craft the crannog builders.' Their way of going to work seems to have been as follows:-The spot, generally a shal

having been chosen, a thick bed of brushwood and branches was floated over it. On this a circular raft of trunks of trees was formed, and upon it additional layers of logs and brushwood, together with stones and gravel were heaped till the whole mass grounded. As this process went on, upright piles of oak of the requisite length were inserted into holes prepared in the horizontal logs, which were here and there pinned together with stout oaken pegs. Here and there, too, and at various levels oak beams were laid right across the raft, mortised into each other, and secured to the surrounding piles. When sufficiently above the water-line, the top of the island was covered with a pavement of oak beams, and mortised beams were laid over the tops of the encircling piles. By an elaborate arrangement of beams and stones, the sides of the island were made to slope, so as to give greater breadth at the base than at the top. Around the surface of the island a rough breastwork was then constructed, and within or attached to this the hut or huts were raised. Frequently a submerged gangway was laid from the crannog to the nearest shore, by means of which secret access could be obtained to the island without the use of a canoe; and the whole was finished by the erection of one or more lines of enclosing palisades.* Bearing in mind,' says Dr. Munro, that all these structures were solidly put together without nails or bolts, and that the gangways which have remained permanently fixed to the present time had neither joint nor mortise, we may fearlessly challenge modern science to produce better results under these or indeed any circumstances.'

That these singular and indeed remarkable constructions were used as permanent and not as occasional dwellings, we do not doubt. The opinion has been advanced that they were used mainly as summer retreats and as places of occasional refuge, on the ground chiefly that, where a crannog is found, a fort is usually found on some neighbouring hill-top. We cannot now enter upon a discussion of this opinion, but it seems to us wholly untenable. The probability is that in the fort and in the crannog we have the dwellings and strongholds

of two distinct races: in the fort of the Celts, and in the crannog of the neolithic tribes who preceded them. That the Celts used the crannogs, there can probably be no doubt; nor can there be that the crannogs have had many occupants. That of Lochlee seems to have been abandoned and re-occupied no fewer than three times, with considerable periods intervening. The fact that the lowermost of the hearths was found some three feet below the surface of the log-pavement would seem to point to the subsidence or submergence of the structure, and to its subsequent discovery and re-occupation; while the discovery of stone, bronze, and iron implements in all the crannogs points to the fact that they were the dwellingplaces of many generations, the history of perhaps the greater number of which has still to be written.

ART. V.-AGNOSTICISM.

THERE HERE have been two extreme opinions in the history of Christendom regarding the limits of human knowledgeGnosticism and Agnosticism. The former is the scientific creed of the second Christian century; the latter is the scientific tendency of the nineteenth. The Gnostics are the men who know; the Agnostics are the men who do not know. Gnosticism says: Man has or may have a faculty by which he can know the Infinite; he has only to shut his eyes upon the outer world, and to entrance himself in a reverie of mystic contemplation, and there will enter into his soul experiences beyond human experience-thoughts which transcend all earthly ideas-the waves of a life which never flowed from the rivers of time. Agnosticism says: Man has no faculty for the knowledge of the Infinite. Not only is he unable to know the Infinite, he is incapable of knowing any finite thing outside the range of experience. All his ideas have entered through the five gates of the senses, and

having been chosen, a thick bed of brushwood and branches was floated over it. On this a circular raft of trunks of trees was formed, and upon it additional layers of logs and brushwood, together with stones and gravel were heaped till the whole mass grounded. As this process went on, upright piles of oak of the requisite length were inserted into holes prepared in the horizontal logs, which were here and there pinned together with stout oaken pegs. Here and there, too, and at various levels oak beams were laid right across the raft, mortised into each other, and secured to the surrounding piles. When sufficiently above the water-line, the top of the island was covered with a pavement of oak beams, and mortised beams were laid over the tops of the encircling piles. By an elaborate arrangement of beams and stones, the sides of the island were made to slope, so as to give greater breadth at the base than at the top. Around the surface of the island a rough breast work was then constructed, and within or attached to this the hut or huts were raised. Frequently a submerged gangway was laid from the crannog to the nearest shore, by means of which secret access could be obtained to the island without the use of a canoe; and the whole was finished by the erection of one or more lines of enclosing palisades.* Bearing in mind,' says Dr. Munro, that all these structures were solidly put together without nails or bolts, and that the gangways which have remained permanently fixed to the present time had neither joint nor mortise, we may fearlessly challenge modern science to produce better results under these or indeed any circumstances.'

That these singular and indeed remarkable constructions were used as permanent and not as occasional dwellings, we do not doubt. The opinion has been advanced that they were used mainly as summer retreats and as places of occasional refuge, on the ground chiefly that, where a crannog is found, a fort is usually found on some neighbouring hill-top. We cannot now enter upon a discussion of this opinion, but it seems to us wholly untenable. The probability is that in the fort and in the crannog we have the dwellings and strongholds