4i rilE-IIISTOrJC ARCILEOLOGY OF EAST DEVON.

and black ashes of the pyre, reJuced by coniprcssioii to a layer of about a couple of inches in thickness, generally cover a space of about four or five feet in diameter in the centre of the mound. In two instances, we have found that a large portion of the earth forming tlie mound has been subjected to the action of fire, whilst in the majority of cases the mou!id consisted of black or greyish-coloured earth, formed by the decay of the turf and humus pared off from the site of the barrow, and from the space occupied by the fosse that surrounded it. ^^'e can only approximate to a date for these barrows. SuUsequctit observations have, how- ever, tended to confirm the conjecture at first hazarded, namelv, that they are to be referred to a period anterior to CaDsar's landing, when bronze, though known, was scarce.* It is safer not to attempt to fix any specific date, but to say, as we may with confidence, that they belong to a period which ends a century or two before the occujiation of Britain by the liomans. The Institute is iiuloljted to the kindness of the Author for the Illustrations of the foregoing Memoir, ' Compare the remarks given in thb Journal, vol. xxv. ji. 311.