covered in a barrow, either chambers of stone, unusually large, or of wood, or any other remarkable objects, it will be advisable to discontinue the excavation, until the barrow can be examined by some intelligent person acquainted with the subject.
Barrows are the places where antiquities are most frequently discovered. But the digging of sandpits, the making of ditches, ploughing, and other labours of husbandry, are constantly bringing objects of antiquarian interest to light. By the removal of single stones, valuables have often been found at a moderate depth under the stones, which had been concealed there in ancient times. A few strokes of the spade where a large stone has formerly lain, may hence afford a rich prize. It has already been observed, that large stones should not be broken before they have been turned and examined, to ascertain whether they bear any inscription.
Next to the barrows, the peat bogs are the most important deposits of antiquities. The objects discovered in them have this advantage over those exhumed from the earth, that they are in a much better state of preservation. In bogs we may, for instance, expect to find stone-axes with the ancient handles of wood, while even bodies clothed, in their garments, have several times been met with in cutting through bogs. Hence it is doubly important to observe the greatest care in digging in the peat, as soon as anything remarkable is traced. The best mode is to dig cautiously round the spot, and to endeavour to extract all the objects it contains without injuring them. The mass of peat which surrounds them is not then to be removed immediately; for the earthy portions easily separate, when they have been somewhat dried in the air. At the same time, it is not expedient to dry all specimens in the sun, or in a strong heat, for articles which are not of stone, or of metal, are shrunk by this means. The relation of objects to each other deserves peculiar attention, and enquiries should be made whether more
