The P anet Pallas. — Antiquities. 393 



Inclination of orbit 13° 37' 0" 



Angle of eccentricity 58 2 58 



Logarithm of half the greater axis , . . . 0*34500 



Half the greater axis 2-2131 



Period 1202-54 days. 



From these elements it appears that this comet is at present 

 in opposition to the sun, and may perhaps be seen by very pow- 

 erful telescopes. 



According to the calculation of M. Olbers of Bremen, after a 

 lapse of 83,000 years, a comet will approach to the earth in the 

 same proximity as the moon ; after 4,000,000 years it will ap- 

 proach to the distance of 7,700 geographical miles; and then, if 

 its attraction equals that of the earth, the waters of the ocean 

 will be elevated 13,000 feet, and cause a second dehtge. After 

 220,000,000 years, it will clash with the earth. 



THE PLANET PALLAS. 



According to Derksen, the next opposition of this planet will 

 take place in 1820, January 6, at 20'' 16' 41" mean time at 

 Gottiugen : Longitude 106*^ 0' 16".2, Geocentric latitude 54^*. 

 28' 33".2 S. 



ANTIQUITIES. 



vSome time ago, in digging to make gas tanks at the Low Lights, 

 near North Shields, in a place called Salt Marsh, in Pow Dean, 

 at the distance of 12 feet 6 inches from the surface, the workmen 

 came to a framing of large oak beams, black as ebony, pinned 

 together with wooden pins or tree-nails: the whole resembling 

 a wharf or pier, whither ships drawing 9 or 10 feet water had 

 come. Muscle shells lay under an artificial spread or coating of 

 fine clay, as in the bed of a river. Julius Agricola, about the 83d 

 year of the Christian sera, had his fleet in the Tyne ; but tradition 

 says, he moored them in the brook Don, near where Jarrow 

 Church now stands ; he may have also moored some of them in 

 this place (opposite to the Roman station, near South Shields), 

 as it has been a secure estuary at the mouth of the Pow Bourne, 

 guarded from the sea by a peninsula of clay and sandy land, now 

 called the Prior's Point, whereon CMfford's Fort was built in 1672. 

 Large oak trees were also found, hollowed out as if to convey 

 water. Had there i)ceii found any scorite, or calcined stones, 

 conjecture might have pointed to salt-works having been here ; 

 but, on the contrary, few stones were found, only sandy black 

 mud 12 or 13 feet deep, and one freestone, squared out in the 

 middle to hold the foot of a wooden pillar: hammer marks were 

 visible in the sides of the square hole. On the side of the pen- 

 insula above referred to, next to the estuary, salt-pans were work- 

 ing 



