230 GLEANINGS. 



British Rainfall in 1877. — Mr. Symons' capital volume has been 

 published since our last issue. It contains rainfall returns from about 

 2,000 stations in the British Islands, and is, as usual, an excellent 

 example of the amazing perseverance and industry of the compiler. For 

 the British Isles generally the year 1877 shows an excess of about twenty- 

 seven per cent, above the average, the figures being as follows : — 



Depth in 1877. Averatre. 



England 4fj 22 in oG 55 in. 



Scotland 4688 in 87:32 in. 



Ireland 4314 in 3437 in. 



The Collectanea Antiqua. — Mr. C. Koach Smith has just issued to 

 his subscribers the first part of his seventh volume. It contains 

 admirably illustrated papers on Roman Potters' Kilns discovered near 

 Colchester ; Notes on some of the Antiquities of France ; Roman Leaden 

 Seals, and British Oppida and Roman Castra. In the last-named j)aper 

 the author points out how commonly the British or Celtic earthworks 

 are confounded with Roman camps, and illustrates this by I'eference to 

 the fortification at Lingfield Mark, in Surrey. The fine earthwork on 

 Borough Hill, in Leicestershire, we consider to be certainly of British 

 construction, and we trust to describe it, with some others in the same 

 county, in a future number of the " Midland NaturaUst." 



Rh.etic Fossils. — The beautiful star-fish, Ophiolcpis Damesii, (Wright,) 

 first found in England by Mr. Harrison, near Leicester, turned up some 

 time afterwards at Garden Cliff, on the Severn. We now hear that the 

 same radiate has been found by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, near Stratford- 

 on-Avon, and by Mr. H. J. Elsee, near Rugby. Evidently it only 

 wanted looking for. 



South African Fossils. — To lovers of science it may not be un- 

 interesting to know that a collection of fossil Saurians has just been 

 shipped for England by Mr. Thomas Bain, who, at the request of 

 Professor Owen, was allowed by the Government to undertake the work 

 of collecting. It consists of 308 crania of the Dicynodou, Oudenodon, 

 Lycosaurus, Galesaurus, and the Cynodracon, and some skulls apparently 

 quite new to science, fossh wood, vegetable impressions, and a sample of 

 Beaufort coal. Mr. Bain found the head of a Saurian in the matrix of 

 the coal, within two feet of the seam, a fact, he considers, worthy of record, 

 as it may give some clue to determine the age of our Cajpe coal period, about 

 which there is much diversity of opinion at present. — lite Cape Aryus. 



Roman Inscriptions. — In the Leicester Town Museum there is an 

 interesting fragment of the beautiful red polished ware Imown as Samian, 

 which the Romano-British settlers imported from Gaul, and which they 

 jii-ized so highly. It is a slightly curved piece, perhaps originally part of 

 the rim of a bowl, and is about ii^iu. long by lAin. broad. It is pierced for 

 suspension round the neck, and on it is incised, in a bold, clear letter, 

 VERECVNDA LYDIA, LVCIVS GLADIATOR. Evidently it was a 

 present, a keepsake, from one Lucius, a gladiator, to Verecunda Lydia, 

 his sweetheart. It was found in Bath Lane, Leicester, during the progress 

 of the sewerage works in 1851, and is believed to be the only inscription 

 extant from the hand of one whose stated occupation it was to brave 

 the perils of the public arena. 



|lcprts d Societies. 



BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND INSTITUTE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 

 — June lOtb. The members made an excursion to the Vale of Llan{,'ollen. 

 Among the places visite.l were Crow Castle, Valle Criicis Abbey, Llautisilio, and 

 the Berwyu Hills, from which they obtained u very tine view. 



