10 



It was resolved that the Hon. Secretary be requested to convey to R. 

 Bhikemere, Esq., the thanks of the members for his kind invitation, and their 

 regret that they found themselves unable to accept it. A member of the Club had 

 also received for the party an equally kind invitation from Captain Meyrick to 

 visit Goodrich Court and Castle ; but this also had to be declined for want of time. 



A viper preserved in spirits of wine, which had been caught in May last in 

 Barrett's wood, near Tyberton House, in the parish of Madley, and had been 

 forwarded by Mr. T. H. Lee Warner, was handed round for inspection. The 

 brief accompanying note stated that it had been killed by giving to it a pinch of 

 tobacco. The generic character, as given in Bell's "Reptiles," is: "Head 

 depressed, oblong, ovate, somewhat compressed before, and wider behind the 

 eyes ; vertex covered with scuta ; no pit between the nostrils and the eyes ; tail 

 with double plates beneath." The colour of this reptile is yellow, with a dark 

 zigzag line down the back ; but there are also red and black vipers. The eye of the 

 viper differs from that of the snake in the pupil being placed in a straight line lead- 

 ing from the top of the head downwards. Mr. Strickland explained that both red 

 and black vipers were the same species at different stages of growth. The excre- 

 scences near the end of the tail, about which some doubt was expressed, were the 

 male reproductive organs developed in the breeding season. Thanks were voted 

 to Mr. Lee Warner for his communication. 



The Hon. Secretary laid on the table some fragments of a deer's horn, and of 

 a bone of an ox, which had been found at a depth of 20 feet beneath tlic surface, in 

 the silt deposit on the southern bank of the Wye at Hereford, in the course of the 

 excavation for a pier of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway Bridge 

 now in course of erection. The bones had been handed to him by Mr. J. S. 

 Davis, of Broad Street, in this city. Mr. Strickland remarked that these bones 

 were of comparatively recent date, the polish on their surfaces indicating that 

 there was a considerable amount of gelatine still remaining in them. Upon losing 

 their gelatine bones became rough and porous on the surface. 



The bones, tusks, &c., found in the parishes of Bosbury and VVithington in 

 1843, during the formation of the Hereford and Gloucester Canal, which had been 

 brought for inspection by Mr. Ballard, excited much interest. Sir R. Murchison 

 and Mr. Strickland explained that some of the large bones which had been sup- 

 posed to belong to the rhinoceros or hippopotamus, were femur and other bones 

 of probably the Bos Urus, or bison ; the vertebrae and'skull in the collection were 

 those of an animal of the deer species, probably the red deer. The collection also 

 included teeth and portions of tusks of the elephant. These remains were the 

 more interesting from the fact that so few mammalian remains have been hitherto 

 found in the drift of Herefordshire. 



The company, having breakfasted, started about half-past ten o'clock upon 

 their pedestrian excursion. The points to which they first directed their course 

 were the quarry and limekiln at the north-eastern base of Doward Hill, at which 

 place the Mountain or Carboniferous limestone is laid bare. After spending a 



