78 



back. For a reward each year, he had consented to allow 

 the hooks to be inserted in the muscles there, and his body to 

 be swung over a circle of thirty feet diameter, from the top of 

 a pole with an iron cap on it. 



Mr. Yates communicated some observations upon the 

 numerous attempts which had been made to procure fresh 

 from salt water ; the earliest of which appears to have been 

 that by the celebrated Eobert Boyle. This philosopher pub- 

 lished, in the year 1683, a treatise on the distillation of fresh 

 water out of sea water — a process which has not at any period 

 been attended with much success, but which was expected at 

 that time to lead to results highly favourable to navigation 

 and commerce. The alleged discovery was celebrated in a 

 poem by E. Arwaker, M.A., entitled, " Fons perennis, a poem 

 on the excellent and useful invention of making sea water fresh" 

 It was published in 1686, and copies of it are scarce. 



Dr. Inman stated that a portion of a moss — a sub-marine 

 forest similar to that at Leasowe — had been recently uncovered 

 on the beach near Blackpool. One of the stumps thus ex- 

 posed appeared to bear the marks of an axe ; and he had 

 found one fragment which bore two marks of an axe, the bark 

 being removed between them- It was the blaze of some 

 forester. He thought this was interesting as affording cor- 

 roboration to the view now usually adopted, that the land in 

 that part of the country was a forest until the trees had 

 been cut down by order of a cautious conqueror, lest they 

 should harbour enemies, or for other reasons. It was re- 

 markable that no large trees would now grow for many miles 

 from the sea at the present time. The sea margin had pro- 

 bably altered. 



Mr. Lowndes then read an abstract of the Cities and Ceme- 

 teries of Etruria, by Mr. Dennis. 



