Page Content (OCR)
they pulled out. Little cave. London Times, July 20, 1836: That, early in July, 1836, some boys were searching for rabbits' burrows in the rocky formation, near Edinburgh, known as Arthur's Seat. In the side of a cliff, they came upon some thin sheets of slate, which Seventeen tiny coffins. Three or four inches long. In the coffins were miniature wooden figures. They were dressed differently both in style and material. There were two tiers of eight coffins each, and a third tier begun, with one coffin. The extraordinary datum, which has especially made mystery here: That the coffins had been deposited singly, in the little cave, and at intervals of many years. In the first tier, the coffins were quite decayed, and the wrappings had moldered away. In the second tier, the effects of age had not advanced so far. And the top coffin was quite recent-looking. In the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, 3-12-460, there is a full account of this find. Three of the coffins and three of the figures are pictured. So Elvera with its downy forests and its microscopic oyster shells--and if the Elvereans be not very far- advanced, they take baths--with sponges the size of pin heads-- Or that catastrophes have occurred: that fragments of Elvera have fallen to this earth: