EARLY MAN the body lay on the right side and in a few on the back. At one place a large number of bones was found thrown together, giving the impression that they had been removed from the graves and collected, perhaps to make room for later interments. The remains were of men, women, and children of various ages, and the general appearances suggested use by a comparatively small number of people through a long space of time rather than by large numbers for a short period. With these remains were found implements of slate, some flint flakes, bronze rings, earrings, bracelets, and fibulae, the latter being very fine. Some of these are thought to date from about the time of the Roman invasion of England, and this is borne out by the fragments of iron, apparently remains of a bracelet, a dagger pommel, and a small hook, which have been recorded. Pottery is almost unknown amongst these discoveries, but some spindle whorls and beads have been found. The possibility of the existence in this remote part of Cornwall at a comparatively recent date of a people marked off by this curious burial custom, as distinct from any of the previously known occupants of the county, is par- ticularly interesting, and encourages a hope that the excavations at Harlyn Bay may be continued, and that similar discoveries may be made in other parts. There is a record in Drew's History 1 that in 1778 a violent storm shifted a great quantity of sand on the towans in the parish of St. Minver, in consequence of which ' many coffins of slate-stone were discovered which con- tained human bones in large quantities,' and with these * several coins, some rings, and various implements of dress ' ; these coins, it is said, were dated from 1 101 to 1558 A.D., and were preserved by ' Mr. Sandys, the late vicar.' St. Minver is the parish on the other side of the Padstow estuary, and, not far from Harlyn Bay, is equally remote from the main life of the county. It would be most satisfactory, seeing the great likeness of this discovery to the burial ground at Harlyn Bay, if these coins could even now be traced and the accuracy of the account in Drew's History tested. UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS Under the head of megalithic remains some particulars have already been given of traces of ancient dwellings. 8 They are all built after the same manner, a deep wide trench sunk into the ground or excavated into the side of a small hill or rising land, the sides built up with large stones without mortar, the inside facing of the stone being fairly smooth, forming a not uneven sur- face, and the roof made of long flat slabs of stone laid across from wall to wall, and the whole covered completely with earth. None of them show above the ground level and they are not easy to find. The longest in the county is that at Halligey, 8 near Trelowarren, in Mawgan in Meneage, where the main chamber is 90 ft. long, 3 to 5 ft. in breadth, 6 ft. high in the middle, but lower towards the ends, and the smaller chamber at right angles to the east end of the main chamber is 28 ft. long, 5 ft. 6 in. wide and 6ft. high. All those which have been thoroughly explored have been found to have one or more smaller chambers connected with them, the opening between 1 Drew, op. cit. ii, 495. 1 The local name is ' Fogou ' or ' Vau.' 1 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. viii (1885), 243, with plates ; Arch, xl ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx. 367
