264 THE ROMANO-BRITISH BARROW ON MERSEA ISLAND.
are noticeable on panning. The washed product is a coarse white sand,
mostly quartz with a little flint and felspar. The heavy residue is mainly
limonite, but garnet, ilmenite, zircon, kyanite, rutile, tourmaline, staurolite
and hornblende are also present.
(3.) Grey Material at 19 feet :
Very similar to the last sample. Pebble other than flint rather more
numerous. They include coarse spicular cherts, red and white ; a spicu-
liferous sandstone (? Upper Greensand) ; brown sandstone ; bits of
ironstone bands ; and two pebbles of white quartz. Fibrous rootlets,
small fragments of charcoal, and a beetle's elytron were noticed.
The heavy residue, as usual, is chiefly earthy limonite, with small
amounts of garnet, ilmenite, tourmaline, zircon, rutile, staurolite, kyanite,
hornblende, and probably andulusite.
(4.) Red Stratum at 22ft. 6in.
Lumps of red and brown earthy material. On washing, much coarse
material and sand are left, the former consisting largely of irregular
lumps of burnt clay. There are also flint pebbles, spiculiferous cherts,
chalk, yellow ochre, and calcareous lumps containing bits of burnt clay
(? mortar). Rootlets and lumps of charcoal are fairly abundant.
The heavy residue is chiefly limonite with small amounts of garnet,
tourmaline, staurolite, zircon, ilmenite, kyanite, rutile, epidote, and horn-
blende. Splinters of organic (?) material were also seen ; they had a high
refractive index and low bi-refungence—like apatite. These may have
been present also in the other samples, but HCl was used in these cases
to eliminate limonite before the heavy residue was examined.
(5) Samples from washings of the original surface at 23 feet below the
top of the mound :
About a dozen fragments, mostly burnt clay, red and whitish chert
with cavities (? are these due to solution of the ferruginous oasis of
spicules), and earthy aggregates with slight ferruginous cement.
G. M. DAVIES, 27th June, 1913.
The most important result arising from Mr. Davies' exam-
ination of these samples lies in the light his report throws upon
the constitution of a certain remarkable stratum of red material
which was met with in the lower portion of the barrow. This
stratum consisted chiefly (as is stated fully in the general report)
of crushed red Roman tile and yellow ochre. The materials
of which it was composed had clearly been strewn over the tomb
after this was closed, the stratum being as much as two inches
thick at the centre, and gradually thinning out to nothing at
15 or 20 feet from the tomb. I have found that, if the Red
Stratum material be examined as a solid object under the
microscope, without washing, the proportion of ochre is seen to
be much greater than appears from the washed residue.