XXIV. THE FIRST WINTER MEETING. 



(ii.) Annales del Museo Nacional de Montevideo Tomo III., 

 Fascicul. 13, 14. 



EXHIBITS. 



BY THE PRESIDENT: 



1. Some interesting fossils. 



BY CAPTAIN A. KICKARDS: 



2. A quartz crystal from Siberia, containing beautiful needle-shaped dark 

 coloured crystals of rutile. 



BY THE HON. SECRETARY : 



3. Specimens from Derbyshire of Pcriplaneta americana, a large and hand- 

 some cockroach, which is fast establishing itself in various parts of England. 



BY T. B. GROVES, ESQ. : 



4. A fossil sponge. 



5. A letter from Mr. Groves on the subject of Eggardon was read by the Hon. 

 Secretary, in which Mr. Groves deplored the destruction which is going on in all 

 directions of works of prehistoric antiquity, and urged the members of the 

 Club to use their influence to stop it. He wrote: "Many years ago, when 

 spending a holiday at Magiston, I and my cousins rode over to Eggardon Hill, 

 and, it being evening time and the sun, of course, low, and the shadows 

 pronounced, I observed very distinctly on the level ground immediately behind 

 the top vallum a treble row of hemispherical depressions, some sixty in number, 

 very exactly arranged in order, and evidently the sites of ancient dwellings of the 

 inhabitants of the settlement. 



"Some years after I again found myself on the spot, but, alas! all traces of 

 these pits had disappeared, and a workman was then engaged in 'drawing 

 gravel ' from the earthwork for the parish authorities. 



" Again, the splendid group of barrows at the top of the range of hills between 

 Upwey and Martiiistown are every year diminished in volume by being ploughed 

 round and even over, and whose condition I have more than once referred to at 

 the Club meetings." 



PAPERS. The following papers were then read : 

 i. ''Dorchester Antiquities" by H. J. Moule, Esq. This 

 paper forms part of a small work dealing with the whole subject 

 of antiquities which have been discovered at Dorchester, which 

 will be published independently by Mr. Moule. A discussion 

 took place on the nature of the tesserae of the Roman pavement 

 then being laid in the Museum, when various suggestions as to 

 their origin were made, the balance of opinion being that they 

 belonged to local rocks. 



