1823.] Royal Society. 233 



variation of the needle might still be connected with the influence 

 of the sun, as, indeed, its increase from March to October 

 seemed to prove. Mr. Macdonald further suggested,, that a 

 rnagnetical battery might be constructed, perhaps, by a proper 

 arrangement of positive and negative poles ; and concluded his 

 paper with expressing his hopes, that what he had stated might 

 lead some to pursue the subject, who were better qualified than 

 himself for the investigation of it. 



The Society then adjourned over the anniversary of the mar- 

 tyrdom of King Charles I. 



Feb. 6. — A letter to the President from Sir Thomas Brisbane, 

 Knt. FRS. dated Government House, Paramatta, New South 

 Wales, Sept. 6, 1822. In this were communicated the results 

 of the first observations made at the Observatory at Paramatta, 

 by Mr. Charles Rumker ; they related to the obliquity of the 

 ecliptic at Paramatta, to the longitudes of Paramatta and Syd- 

 ney, to the rediscovery of M. Encker's triennial comet, and to 

 the length of Kater's invariable pendulum vibrating seconds at 

 Paramatta. 



At the same meeting was read, An Account of some Caves 

 discovered in the Limestone Quarries at Oreston ; by J. Whid- 

 bey, Esq. in a letter to J. Barrow, Esq. FRS. 



The two caves described in this paper were discovered, at the 

 elevation of 93 feet above the sea at high water in spring- 

 tides, in the quarries upon the Cat-water, from which the 

 stone employed in the Breakwater is procured. One was 

 thinly lined with stalactite, and the bones it contained were 

 imbedded in clay and rubble ; in the other, they adhered to the 

 sides ; these caves communicate with each other by a sort of 

 gallery, which opens to the face of the quarry about the size of 

 a man's body. They have been examined by Prof. Buckland 

 and Mr. Warburton. Their form and position were illustrated 

 by a drawing annexed to the paper. 



Annexed to Mr. Whidby's paper, was A Description of the 

 Bones found in the Caves above-mentioned ; by Mr. W. Clift, 

 Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ; 

 communicated by Sir E. Home, VPRS. 



The contents of the caves discovered at Oreston in 1816 and 

 1820, which had been described in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions for 1817 and for 1821, were altogether different from those of 

 the present, discovered in 1822. In the first instance, the bones 

 all belonged to a species of rhinoceros ; and in the second to a 

 species of bear, and to an unknown antelope or deer : those now 

 under consideration belonged to the known and existing genera 

 of the ox, the deer, the horse, the hyauia, the wolf, and the fox. 

 Some of them were thinly invested with stalactite, but the 

 greater number were firmly imbedded in clay. None had been 

 gnawed, except the radius of a young wolf, which presented 

 tracts of the canine teeth aud incisors, of an animal apparently 



