178 Philological Secretary — Reports on old coins. [June, 



present case — but he says that by strongly heating a solution of sodium 

 silicate in glass tubes the glass is attacked layer by layer and silica is 

 dissolved, forming a more acid sodium silicate. This compound is 

 changed again by cooling into a more basic silicate by the deposition 

 of silica in the form of nodules. The glass by losing silica is converted, 

 layer by layer, into a more basic silicate, which by taking up water is 

 ultimately transformed into a stratified zeolitic substance. 



At about 180° and above, free silica sepai'ates from alkaline solu- 

 tions in the form of quartz ; below 180° in that of tridyraite ; at still 

 lower temperatures as crystallised, and finally as amorphous hydrate of 

 silica. 



From this it would seem most probable that the fire may have 

 been the original cause of the stratified deposit — but the origin of the 

 curious pentagonal nucleus, clear in the centre and almost opaque white 

 around within the first layer, with the broken strata and generally circular 

 formation above is not apparent, unless it may possibly have been due 

 to a small fragment of glass falling from the crack above into the solu- 

 tion. Nor is it clear why the deposit should be almost entii'ely on one 

 side of the bottle — unless that side was exposed to greater heat from 

 the fire or to the light falling on it for years. I am very sorry that I 

 have no more positive data to give towai'ds finding out the actual causes 

 that have been at work in this instance — however, I thought it might 

 be of interest to record it in the hope that other members better ac- 

 quainted with the subject, might be able to throw some light upon them. 



The Philological Secretary read the following reports on finds 

 of Treasure Trove Coins : 



I, Report on 25 old coins forwarded by the Deputy Commissioner 

 of Rawal Pindi, with his No. 613, Gr, dated 7th March 1888. 



The coins are stated to have been found by a man, while grazing 

 sheep and goats, buried in the village common land, in an earthen vessel 

 near the hamlet Hashu of village Dhangdeo, Tahsil Gujar Khan, in the 

 Rawal Pindi District. 



They are later Indo-Scythian coins of the Kida class, the issue 

 probably of some chief of a Hunnic tribe, invading India. Many 

 different varieties of this class of coins have been found, at various times, 

 in different localities ; but a hoard of 62 coins of the very same variety 

 as the present one, was found in the same year (1888) in the Bijnaar 

 District, N.~W. Prov., a report on which is printed in the " Proceedings " 

 of this Society for November 1888. The obverse shows the legends 

 kula, kasha and kshaaatn, and the reverse has sola. Most of the 

 specimens of the present find are in indifferent condition. They are 

 a mixture of gold and silver. 



