a series of cup-marls, seems to be a completed design; but
yet at the corner there are lines which are absolutely meaningless,
unless we suppose that they formed part of a more enlarged tablet.
Similar remarks apply to nos. 3 and 8."

Is it really contrary to "the law of chances" that, in some 1200 years of
unknown fortunes, no two fragments of the same plates of red sandstone
(some dozen in number) should be found at Dunbuie? Think of all that may
have occurred towards the scattering of fragments of unregarded sandstone
before the rise of soil hid them all from sight. Where is the smaller
portion of the shattered cup and ring marked sandstone block found in the
Lochlee crannog? On the other hand, in the same crannog, a hammerstone
broken in two was found, each half in a different place, as were two
parts of a figurine at Dumbuck. Where are the arms of the Venus of Milo,
vainly sought beside and around the rest of the statue? Where are the
lost noses, arms, and legs of thousands of statues? Nobody can guess
where they are or how they vanished. Or where are the lost fragments of
countless objects in pottery found in old sites?

It was as easy for the forger to work over a whole plaque of sandstone,
break it, and bury the pieces, as for him to do what he has done.

These designs make an unfavourable impression because some, not all of
them, are stiff and regular. The others make an unfavourable impression
because they are so laxly executed. For what conceivable purpose did the
forger here resort to the aid of compasses, and elsewhere do nothing of
the kind? Why should the artist, if an old resident of Dunbuie fort, not
have compasses, like the Cairn-wight of Lough Crew?

On inspecting the pieces, in the Museum, the regularity of design seems
to me to be much exaggerated in Dr. Munro's figures, by whom drawn we are
not informed.

As to Dr. Munro's figure 12, it seems to me to aim at a Celtic cross and
circle, while part of his figure 3 suggests a crozier, and there is a
cross on figure 18, as on a painted pebble from a broch in Caithness. The
rest I cannot profess to explain; they look like idle work on sandstone,
but may have had a meaning to their fashioner. His meaning, and that of
the forger who here changes his style, are equally inscrutable.

I return to a strange perforated pebble, an intaglio from Dumbuck.

{ Fig. 23: p136a.jpg}

Dr. Munro quotes, as to this pebble, the _Journal_ of the