Notes on the Vitrified Forts on Noth and Dunnideer.
By Sir A. L. HAY.

I have considered it worthy of the attention, and I hope of the inspection of some members of the Association, that the most remarkable of the vitrified forts peculiar to Scotland, and situated in this district, should be briefly described. The hill or mountains of Noth is situated in the district of Strathbogie in Aberdeenshire, upon the estate of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, rising to an elevation of about 1900 feet above the level of the sea. Noth is an elongated mass of mountain stretching from northeast to south-west. At its western extremity it is conical, and on its summit is constructed the fort, the ground having been apparently levelled for the purpose of its erection. The locality of the fort is at least three hundred feet above any part of the surrounding ground. The vitrified wall encloses a parallelogram rounded at its angles, of about one hundred yards in length by thirty-two in width; it is entered at the southeast angle by a causeway extending down the cone, and from which diverge several roads conducting to its base; this has evidently been the only entrance to this mountain strength. It is remarkable that the main road, and which appears to have been the principal line of access, is that leading to the wild district of Cabrach, the least populously inhabited country of the whole surrounding neighbourhood. The vitrified wall can be traced throughout its whole enceinte, with the exception of the abovementioned entrance, and is more perfect than in any similar work in the kingdom: the portions of the wall which have been most perfectly vitrified are, of course, the most entire. I do not presume to solve the difficulty which naturally results from the various opinions as to the origin or construction of this extraordinary wall; but that it has been the work of human hands appears beyond doubt. The hypothesis of Pennant that it was the crater-rim of an exhausted volcano seems untenable. Williams, the author of the "Mineral Kingdom," considered it so. M'Culloch was of the same opinion. The late Sir George M'Kenzie held that the vitrifaction was produced by the effect of the ancient beacon-fires lighted on the approach of an enemy. Hugh Miller considered this very unsatisfactory, and added "that the unbroken continuity of the vitrified line militates against the signal-system theory.' The causewayed entrance, the second and third lines of wall, the roads conducting from different parts of the country, all lead to a conclusion that this has been the stronghold of a district during barbarous ages. Allowing for the height lost by the accumulation of soil and rubbish at its base, it must have been at least eight feet high, to which is to be added the courses of dry masonry which had raised it to its original altitude, and the stones of which are now piled in innumerable quantities outside the vitrified remains. From the accumulation of soil it is now difficult to ascertain what has been the width of this extraordinary wall, but from all appearance it must have been from eighteen to twenty feet. In the centre of the fort is a well or tank. The appearance of the burnt or vitrified substances proves that an intense and long-continued heat must have been applied, and in many parts of the rampart the stone presents a glazed appearance. Lower down the conical part of the hill, and enclosing an area of twenty or thirty acres, is a line of wall to be traced by its remains, in parts of which the large blocks of stone continue in the positions they have originally occupied in the structure. This wall, with its distinctly-marked entrances and circular towers, surrounds what has been considered the vulnerable part of the hill, and is only discontinued at the southern face of the mountain, where the steep and inaccessible nature of the ground appears to have been considered a sufficient defence from attacks in that immediate direction. Another line of wall is perceptible at the base of the cone on which the fort stands; it embraces a very extensive area, but does not appear to have been a work of such strength or importance as that above described. The date of construction of these remarkable works, or the races by whom they were inhabited, is buried in mystery; neither the traditions of the country nor the page of history afford any information on the subject. That the population of a whole district, with their flocks and herds, had taken shelter therein in cases of hostile attack, appears probable, and there remain indications of habitations having been constructed inside of, and against the second line of wall above described. For the purposes of a mountain fortress the locality has been admirably selected, the only commanding height in its neighbourhood being at a distance of five or six miles-consequently too distant for offensive purposes previous to the discovery of gunpowder and the long range! It has

been remarked by a former writer that "the vitrified enclosure on Noth is far more perfect than on any other of those works in Scotland, and is infinitely more remarkable." On a plain of some extent at the north and north-western base of the cone, in the direction of the Burn of Kirkney, are distinctly marked the tumuli said to contain the slain in the battle in which Lulach, the son of Lady Macbeth, lost his life in the year 1057. Upwards of one hundred of them are to be recognized; but whether the graves are those of the victims of many fights, whether this was the cemetery of the mountain-fort, or whether the above tradition is authentic, it is now impossible to determine. The place is called Mildewne-the grave of a thousand. The author of these notes opened five cairns on different parts of the field. The first, and, apparently from its magnitude, the most important, contained a stone coffin of very rude construction, but of such a description as to render doubt with regard to its original purpose out of the question. On removing the stones and earth to the depth of about three feet, a flag-stone of considerable size appeared: it was placed upright at the western extremity of the excavation, and, at the eastern, at a distance of about six feet, a similar one was discovered of lesser size, but standing exactly in the same position opposite. On the earth being removed from between these, a flat layer of stones became visible. These were placed so accurately, that at first it resembled one entire slab, but, on farther investigation, proved to be portions of flat stones placed very close together, and of a similar quality to those already described. In the four other cairns nothing whatever was discovered, from which it may fairly be conjectured that, in these barbarous times, the rights of sepulture were not attended with much ceremony or refinement, and that it was only in the case of a person of superior rank that even the rough and disjointed receptacle above described was provided. The view from the summit of the hill of Noth is very extensive. From it, with a clear atınosphere, may be distinctly seen the high grounds in nine counties—namely, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Moray, Banff, Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Forfar. Near the village of Insch, in the district of Garioch, on the summit of a conical hill, with an elevation of about 600 feet, stands the ruined Castle of Dunnideer, erected on the site of a still more ancient vitrified fort of smaller size, but similar to that on Noth. It is not here necessary to enter into details of this specimen of the vitrified forts, which is neither so perfect nor so extensive as the one imperfectly described; but it forms some data as to their very remote antiquity, when it is stated that part of the vitrified materials are to be seen in the more modern building which became the residence of Gregory the Great, King of Scotland, who, according to Fordoun and other historians, died there in the year 893.

Description of Passes through the Rocky Mountains. By Dr. HECTOR.

On Gebel Haurán, its adjacent districts, and the Eastern Desert of Syria; with Remarks on their Geography and Geology. By JOHN HOGG, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.R.G.S. &c., Honorary Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature*.

In this communication the author gave a sketch of the recent descriptions of the Lejah, the Haurán, the Gebel Hauran range of mountains, and the district called Ard El Bathanyeh, the Batanæa of the Romans, portions of the former ancient kingdom of Bashan, as lately published by the Rev. J. L. Porter, and Mr. Cyril Graham; also an account of that part of the Syrian or Arabian Desert which is called El Harrah, and is situated to the east of Gebel Haurán, with a description of the elevated volcanic region on its northern border, named by the Arabs L'Safah, and in which are seen many high cone-like peaks, some of which are probably the remains of former craters. This account was taken from the descriptions given by Mr. C. Graham, the only modern European traveller who as yet is known to have reached those previously unexplored and long-forgotten regions.

The author exhibited a map of southern Syria, comprising a district from Busrah, about 36°26′ 45′′ to 37° 45′ nearly long. East from Greenwich, and from Salkhad and

*The entire paper (though without the Map) is published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' vol. xi. (New Series) for April, 1860, pp. 173–192.

E'Deir, south of Busrah, about 32° 30′ to nearly the supposed centre of the Lake Hijaneh in the territory of Damascus, in 33° 20′ North. Lat. This he had drawn on a scale eight times larger than that of Mr. Graham's map, which had only been published a few days, in vol. xxix, of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.' He also coloured it, so as to point out the supposed boundaries of the different provinces under consideration, during the Biblical and Roman times, at least as far as could be determined with any accuracy.

It was further remarked that the most recent maps of Syria do not agree as to the exact positions of Damascus and Busrah; for, in Mr. Porter's first map, which he had the pleasure of communicating to the Royal Geographical Society in Nov. 1855, and published in the 26th volume of their 'Journal,' Damascus is placed in just about 36° 17′ 15′′ E. Long. and in 33° 31′ 15′′ nearly N. Lat., whilst Busrah is laid down in about 36° 26' 35" E. Long. and in 32° 32′ 20′′ N. Lat.; whereas in the map by Henry Kiepert, engraven in Mr. Porter's Handbook of Syria,' published last year, the city of Damascus is laid down in 36° 16' 40" E. Long. and in 33° 31' 40" N. Lat.; but Busrah is placed in 36° 22' 30" E. Long. and in N. Lat. 32° 31' 40", thus giving a difference nearly as to Damascus of 35" of Long. and 25" of Lat.; and about a difference as to Busrah of 4' 5" of Long., and of 40′′ of Lat.

The author then described the principal geographical features of the several regions represented in his large coloured map, adding, with some minuteness, accounts of their geology, as derived from the careful details chiefly afforded by Burckhardt, Porter, and Graham.

The geology of this entire region affords an example of many most important volcanic phenomena, such as are rarely to be seen within the same extent of country. The remains of distinct craters are apparent; whilst the whole region is more or less covered with igneous rocks, such as black trap, or basalt, either in the form of large boulders or outcroppings, and projecting masses. On some of the many conical hills, or Tells as they are termed in Arabic, larva and scoriæ, and pumice of various colours, are visible.

The author especially dwelt on the two more wonderful and extremely similar volcanic portions of that country, which may be termed fields, or islands, of black basalt, or of sterile igneous dark-coloured rock, namely, El Lejah and E'Safah. The former answers to the Trachonitis of the Romans, signifying a stony' district, and to Argob of Scripture; but the ancient appellation of the latter remains to this day unknown. E'Safah, according to Mr. Graham, is even more horrible than the Lejah, for there, in many spots, good soil occurs.

Both districts are often intersected with caverns, and cracks, or fissures, of great depth and width; and the same traveller considers them to be "two of the most remarkable instances of a volcanic formation perhaps in existence."

So Mr. Porter, in like manner, describes the large fissures in the basalt in the Lejah, and writes, that its "physical features present the most singular phenomena he had ever witnessed, and to which there is not, so far as he knows, a parallel in the world, with the exception of the Safah."

The author, having examined some years ago the lava-beds and large volcanic deposits about Vesuvius, in the island of Ischia, and on the east and north sides of Etna, had never seen any chasms and fissures at all parallel to the phenomena, described as being so conspicuous in those of the Lejah and the Safah; and he showed that the nearest parallels are evidently several large lava-fields, and volcanic tracts, in Iceland, an island entirely of igneous origin, and more particularly so are the enormous clefts or fissures, termed in Icelandic, gias. In proof of this view, he described the two best known, and most extended, and deepest fissures, the Hrafna-gia, or 'Raven chasm,' and All-mannagia, or 'All-men's-chasm,' in the vicinity of Thingvalla.

Notice of the Karaïte Jews. By J. HOGG, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.R.G.S. &c., Honorary Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature. The author brought this notice before ethnologists respecting the very ancient sect of Jews who call themselves Karaims or Karaërs, the chief number of whom have for centuries inhabited, as they still do, several towns in the Crimea, in the hope

that their history, the periods of their emigration from Palestine, of their subsequent wanderings and settlements, of their immigration from Asia into Europe, and the exact differences which they profess in their religious doctrine from the ordinary followers of the Jewish faith, might be more accurately investigated.

The distinguished Pallas was, he thought, the first to describe this remarkable people at the close of the last century; he found a great many of them living and carrying on trade at Tchufut Kaleh, i. e., the Jews' Fort', in the Crimea. That traveller stated that they reject the Talmud, and receive no other Jews into their community. They have a beautiful cemetery overshaded with fine trees, which they name the Valley of Jehoshaphat,' and from the numerous sepulchres there seennearly 4000, according to Démidoff-the population must have been large. The most ancient inscription on a tomb there is said to bear date 4727 of the year of the world, or 723 A.D., which, if correct, will show that they have resided in Tchufut Kaleh for more than eleven and a quarter centuries. They are stated to have been governed by their own magistrates.

Some have derived the word Karaim, from Kara, a 'writing' (scriptura); and in addition to the chief difference in religion between the Karaites and the Ordinary Jews-which is the rejection of the Talmud by the former,-some variations in the Liturgy, in the mode of circumcision, in the rules respecting diet, and in the degrees of relationship which permit or forbid marriage,-constitute a very material distinction between these two great sections of the Jewish people. The Karaites have a synagogue at Tchufut Kaleh which has existed for many centuries, and in it are preserved some ancient Thoras, or MS. copies of the Pentateuch on vellum, and rolled in velvet cases.

A special commission is mentioned to have been appointed by the Russian Government some time ago to inquire into the condition, origin and settlement of the Karaïtes; and the following is part of the account confirmed by it, as taken from Baron von Haxthausen's work: " They assert their descent, pure and unmixed, from the tribe of Judah, which was led to Babylon:" that in the reign of Cyrus (about 536 B.C.) Some of them returned to Judea; but that many, remaining after the destruction of Babylon, penetrated farther to the north, settled first in Armenia, and then spread by degrees to the Caucasus; passing over into the Crimea, they then resided there; and a few colonies at length, emigrating from thence, arrived in Poland.

They live in harmony with Christians, and regard Christ as a Prophet who proceeded from their own race, and whose disciples founded a new sect. Not having been in Judea in the time of Christ, they do not share the animosity usually entertained by Jews against Christians.

These Karaites differ from the ordinary Jews, of whom the inferior order is found in such numbers throughout Europe, not only in appearance, but also in character. The expression of their countenance is in general open and prepossessing. Both sexes are handsome, and have the general features of the Jews,-dark eyes, dark hair, &c. Great cleanliness of their persons distinguishes them mostly from their brethren, the Jews. They are polite, honest, and kind. They wear the Tartar dress, and are only known by their shaven faces, with narrow whiskers which reach to their chins. They have many Tartar customs and speak the Tartar language. As merchants they are enterprising, and are in great repute for their good faith and skill,

The author has failed to ascertain from his military friends, who were in the Crimea during the late war, the supposed number of Karaites still residing there, but he understood that it was much reduced by emigration and other causes.

Besides this population, some Karaïtes have been long settled in Poland, the Caucasus, Armenia, Jerusalem, and at Cairo; also at Constantinople. These last are stated by Dr. Frankl, in his recently published work, as amounting to about fifty families, with from 200 to 250 souls; and the same Jewish author mentions the same sect at Jerusalem, who "regard the text of the Bible with a sacred feeling as alone containing the law, and are therefore called Karaërs, i. e. sticklers for the text, as contradistinguished from the Mekebalim, i. e. the sticklers for a traditional faith,"―the Ordinary Jews. Their number in the Holy City now only amounts to thirty-two souls, and four heads of families. These Karaïtes sometimes visit the Talmudist Jews; but they do not intermarry or bury their dead with theirs." They have no books; the One Book, they say, containing the wisdom of the whole world, is sufficient for them." They

are active and honest, working hard for their livelihood, as they receive but very little assistance from their Crimean brethren.

In conclusion, Mr. Hogg added that since the accounts which some distinguished travellers give of the fundamental difference in the religion of the Karaïtes from that of the ordinary or Talmudist Jews vary, it is important for future travellers, who may visit the Karaïtes, to determine what it is in reality.

On the Application of Colonel JAMES's Geometrical Projection of two-thirds of the Sphere to the Construction of Charts of the Stars, &c.

Colonel James exhibited a map of the world on his projection, which is 10 ft. in diameter, and smaller maps of the world, 2 ft. diameter, on which the lines of equal magnetic declination were drawn, and their conveyance round both poles accurately presented to the eye at one view.

After explaining the nature of the projection, which supposes that the spectator is looking into the concavity of two-thirds of a hollow sphere, from a point which would be at the distance of half the radius above the perfect sphere, Colonel James exhibited charts of the stars, pointing out how, from the very nature of the projection, which supposes we are looking into a hollow sphere, it is peculiarly suited for such celestial charts, and also that from the circumstance of its embracing two-thirds of the whole sphere instead of one-sixth, as in the celestial charts on the gnomonic projection, which are in general use and cannot be put together, we have presented to us the whole vault of the heavens at one view, with the circumpolar stars, and every other star to the opposite pole in true relation to each other.

On one of the charts of the stars the "milky way" is exhibited in a manner in which it was never before represented, viz. as a perfect circular band.

The maps, with the magnetic lines and the charts of the stars, are in course of engraving for publication.

On the Roman Camp at Ardoch, and the Military Works near it. By Colonel HENRY JAMES, R.E., F.R.S. &c., Director of the Ordnance Survey.

The object of this communication was to point out what the author conceives to have been a singular oversight in the writers who have given us descriptions of the Camps and Fort at Ardoch-the "Lindum" of the Romans.

Gordon, in his 'Itinerary,' 1726, says, "This fort of Ardoch I recommend to the public as the most entire and best preserved of any Roman antiquity of that kind in Britain, having no less than five rows of ditches and six ramparts. And again he says, "To the north of the fort of Ardoch are to be seen the vestiges of a vast large ditch upon the moor, with two or three small projections of earth at regular distances, as if they had been made for the outscouts to the foresaid fort."

General Roy, in his Military Antiquities,' 1793, gives us a very accurate plan of the fort, and also of the camps on the north of it, to which Gordon refers. An enlarged copy of this plan was exhibited in the Section-room.

Stuart, in his 'Caledonia Romana,' 1845, says, "There is something singular in the arrangement or form of the ramparts at Ardoch station; they did not compose a series of valla, rising in regular successive courses round the larger internal wall, as we find was generally the case elsewhere; but they appear to have been in some places arranged in a very unusual manner."

Chalmers, in his 'Caledonia,' places the site of the great battle "ad montem Grampium," between the Romans under Agricola and the Caledonians under Galgacus, on the rising ground to the north of the great camp, and thinks this is the identical camp which the Romans occupied, and from which they advanced to attack the Caledonians.

In describing the camps to the north of the fort, General Roy considers them to be two marching camps of the Romans, the one capable of holding three legions, or an army of 28,800 men; the other as capable of holding upwards of 12,000 men. On his plan he has represented the Procestrium of the fort, which is a large space of ground enclosed by a rampart for the allies, and connected with the fort, and so arranged that the works of the fort itself command it and could defend it.