About four miles east from Forfar, is the castle-hill of Finhaven, the vitrifications on which have led Dr Anderson to compare them to the effects of the fire in a limekiln ; and he represents them as having been produced by the ir regularity of the weather, the wind blowing sometimes hard, sometimes gently. This is exactly what we suppose to have been the cause of the vitrifications, while we as cribe a particular purpose to the fire.
The walls in some parts of this fort have been laid bare, so as to appear at least ten feet high. We have no perfect description of the vitrification. Dr Anderson describes it as appearing here and there in horizontal or nearly hori zontal streaks but it is evident, that the wall had been built previously to the application of fire, in whatever way that may have been made- The stones are in courses, and banded, as we have been informed by the Rev. Dr Jamie son, (to whom we are chiefly indebted for what we state respecting this fort), and the stones have been very un equally and irregularly affected by the fire, and many of them not at all. Seven or eight varieties of stone appear to have been made use of. Had there been an intention to vitrify this wall, the most fusible stones would appear to have been selected ; but instead of this, they have been placed in the 1;311 indiscriminately with others. We have already remarked, that much pains seem, in some instan ces, to have been taken to fill up irregularities in the ground, so as to form a level area on the summit. Our in formation respecting this fort is not so clear as to enable us to determine whether the unusual height of the wall can be accounted for in this way. For defending a fort front within, a rampart of less height would have been suffi cient. There are several cross walls on this hill, and the vestiges of outworks; and altogether it seems to offer much satisfaction on a .eareful examination. We regret, that our information, in regard to some of its peculiarities, came too late to enable us to visit the castle-hill of Finha ven, before it was necessary to send this article to the press. It is said, that between this hill and that of Laws, already noticed, there is another fort, which completes the commu ideation over a very wide extent of country. By keeping
in view the idea, that signals by lire have been in use at the period when these fortifications were constructed ; and looking around from the summit of the hills on which they have been placed, for hills similar in situation and shape, particularly at the entrances of vallics, or on ridges which interrupt the view ; many vitrified forts will, we confident ly expect, be discovered, and communications far more extensive than any hitherto ohserved may be traced. As the repulsion of foreign invasion was an object of interest to the country at large, hostile tribes and clans would natu rally unite for the common defence ; and, as their Scandi navian neighbours were in the habit of frequently molesting them, no plan for alarming the country with the utmost ce lerity appears so natural, or so effectual, as the lighting of fires.
A few miles from Fort-William, in the parish of Kilma lie, is the hill of Dundhairclgliall, the summit of which is surrounded by a vitrified mass of stones. This hill com mands a view of a great part of Mamore, and the whole of Glen Nevis. It is extremely probable, that this was the signal station of the ancient castle of Inverlochy. In this opinion the writer of this article was confirmed by Dr who visited this hill, and who has mentioned his being struck with the probability of the conjecture, in the account he has given of Ben Nevis in the Memoirs of the Wcrnerian Natural History Society.
In the valley of the Beauty river, in Inverness-shire, about two miles north-west of the church of Kiltarlity, is a vitri fied fort, called Dun Thionn. It is circular, and about thirty yards in diameter.
The latest writer on the subject of our article is Dr M'Culloch, who states his opinion in a memoir, published in the Transactions of the London Geological Society. He adopts the opinion of vitrified forts having been construct ed as places of defence, by cementing the walls by means of fire ; and rejects, in a peremptory manner, the opinion which we have attempted to defend, viz. that the origin of the vitrifications is to he found in the practice, universally employed by our ancestors, of alarming the country, when threatened by invasion, by fires lighted on conspicuous situations.