26 



Probably few meteor showers have ever been seen more 

 favourably for determining the radiant than this one. The 

 result of careful counting by myself and Mr. Wilde was that 

 from 1800 to 2000 per hour were visible to the naked eye. 

 The N.W. horizon was distinctly illuminated about 8 o'clock 

 by auroral light, and the whole sky was more or less lumi- 

 nous during the whole time. 



Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., brought before the notice 

 of the Society some remarkable forms of stalagmites which 

 he had obtained from some caves near Tenby. In one cave 

 the calcareous deposit had taken the form of small mush- 

 rooms standing close together with a stem not much thicker 

 than a hair, that covered every part of the surface, and 

 in some places had their tops of a dull red colour, and in 

 others of a snow white. In a second every pool was lined 

 with most beautiful crystals of dog-tooth spar, while from 

 the roof there descended slender stalactitic pillars, some 

 snow white and others of a deep red, and most of the 

 thickness of a straw, They stood almost as closely to- 

 gether as the stems of wheat in a wheat field. In a few 

 pools where the diip caused constant agitation of the waters 

 pea-like rounded concretions of carbonate of lime were 

 formed, some of which, polished by friction, were almost as 

 lustrous as pearls, and might fairly be termed ' cave-pearls.' 



" On the date of the Conquest of South Lancashire by the 

 English," by W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S. 



The most important event in the history of Lancashire, 

 the conquest by the English, has been either lightly touched 

 upon by the county historians such as Baines and Whittaker, 

 or so interwoven Avith the Arthurian legends as to be 

 almost unintelligible. The date, so far as I know, has been 

 altoo'ether ionored. 



What, however, the modern writers have passed by or 



