11 



are withdrawn from the paler portions, and re-aggregated, 

 in a concrete form, along lines of mineral segregation, or 

 around central nuclei. The tendency of iron to gather round, 

 or to disperse from, central nuclei, being amply shewn by the 

 diagrams. 



Captain Fisher read a paper on the battle of Ethandun, 

 in which the Danes were overthrown by Alfred, the site of 

 which battle he proposed to shift from Edington, in Wiltshire, 

 to Hampton, in Gloucestershire — a transfer not likely to be 

 accepted by the Wiltshire antiquaries. Captain Fishek founded 

 his theory upon passages from the Saxon Chronicle, and from 

 the Saxon historian Asser, which seemed to support the suppo- 

 sition that Hampton might have been the site of the conflict ; 

 that here the Danes sustained a dreadful disaster — and, therefore, 

 that " Woful Dane's Bottom " is by no means a misnomer. 



The reading of this paper caused a lively discussion, in which 

 Mr. WiTCHELL, Mr. Cunnington, of Devizes, and others, took 

 part. 



Mr. WiTCHELii thought that "Woful Dane" was certainly 

 the scene of a battle, but that it was not Alfred, but Canute 

 and Edmund Ironside who were engaged in it; and that the 

 battle of AssandAjme, so fatal to the Saxons, was fought at Aston 

 Down, which is only half-a-mile from the stone at '^ Woful 

 Dane." 



The time being limited, barely permitted Mr. Platne to draw 

 the attention of the Club to some very interesting osseous 

 remains from the gravels of the neighbourhood, including the 

 jaw of a beaver (Castor Europoeus,) the horns and jaws of a red 

 deer, of large size, and a jaw, attributed either to the Irish elk 

 (Megaceros hibernicus,) or to its ally, Strongyloceros. The relic 

 of the beaver is of interest, being only the second instance of 

 its discovery, in a fossil state, in this part of England — though 

 found in the Peat beds of Cambridgeshire and the Eastern 

 Counties — a surprising fact, when it is recollected that this 

 animal inhabited Wales so late as the time of Gikaldtjs 

 Cambrensis, and must therefore have been plentiful in England 

 at no very remote period. 



