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[[underline]] Chapter XII. [[/underline]] 255.

ing collapsed suddenly, through its destruction by fire or otherwise.  The tiles lay quite flat, and rested directly on the soil that had accumulated beneath them.
Of this fallen roof we cleared enough to learn that it had once covered a long narrow building, probably little more than a shed (we found no indications of walls), that had stood parallel to and just inside the earthen outer rampart.  It had pretty surely been only one storey in height.  Its total length we did not think it necessary to determine; but its breadth had been in the neighborhood of 5 meters.  The earth, mingled with sand and pebbles, lay just beneath the unbroken layer of tiles, and disclosed nothing save a small and much rusted fragment, apparently of an iron cooking-pot.
From the general aspect of the remains, as well as their  location, we concluded that they were probably those of a long narrow barrack, perhaps a prototype of those in the "Tartar City" of Peking, and of the ones surrounding the [[underline]] yashikis [[/underline]] or feudal residences of the [[underline]] daimyos [[/underline]] at ^[[Edo]] (the present Tokyo) during Tokugawa times.
In partial confirmation of this, some of the intelligent of the local people told us of a constant tradition among them that in the early Ming period Lighthouse Point had been occupied by a fortified camp of government troops.  This camp must eventually have been abandoned (perhaps during the troublous times that came toward the end of the dynasty);  whatever the buildings contained in the way of furniture removed; and the garrison withdrawn.  The thus deserted barracks must then have been slowly covered, perhaps about up to their eaves, by wind-blown sand.  Their upright members (almost certainly of wood) probably rotted through about the same time, and allowed the tiled roofs to sink gently to rest on the ground (now not far beneath them, without much disturb-