52 



Sixth Meeting — January 24. 

 The President in the Chair. 



PUBLIC BUSINESS. 



Mr. Higginson exhibited some specimens of Pottery, winch 

 had been dug up in the Island of Rattan in the Bay of 

 Honduras. They were of very rude make, formed by hand, 

 not in the potter's wheel, and yet showed some approach to 

 the ornamental: they had originally contained a number of 

 insects of the family zylophaga. 



Rev. Dr. Hume suggested that they were probably the pro- 

 ductions of the ancient Caribs, the aboriginal inhabitants of 

 the islands in the Bay of Honduras. 



The President suggested, that, as the specimens produced 

 bore much resemblance to those figured by Stephens in his 

 Researches on Central America, they were probably the pro- 

 duction of the same people as had built the cities, the 

 remains of winch had recently been discovered in Yucatan. 



Rev. Dr. Hume suggested that much evidence had been 

 adduced by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at 

 Copenhagen, to show that the northern Yikingz had pene- 

 trated to Yucatan long before the time of Columbus ; the 

 specimens might, therefore, be of northern manufacture. 



Mr. Alfred Rimmeb read a paper upon Gothic Architec- 

 ture, its associations and fitness for Ecclesiastical purposes. 



The author commenced by remarking on the great obscurity 

 in which the term Gothic, as applied to architecture, was 

 shrouded, and the probability of its having been coined by 

 Sir C. Wren and other architects of that time, to express their 

 contempt for some old monkish piles. 



