126 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I746. 



800 years since its death : and that by age or poverty destroyed, and by time 

 buried in those sands. These horns hiad many antlers, and were about 3^ feet in 

 length, from the root to the tip. 



Another skull, and horns, of the palmated kind, are here described also : the 

 head and horns weighed together 4 st. 12 lb. or 68 lb. 



The length of the skull, from the nose-end to the back-part 



of the head 1 ft. lo inches. 



The breadth of the forehead n 



Length of each horn, from the skull to the tip 5 1 



The extent between the horns 6 1 



The breadth of the web or palm 2 1 



Yet it is evident the horns are not at their full growth, being yet covered vnth 

 what is called the velvet. 



They were found in a peat-moss, at Cowthorp near North Dreighton in York- 

 shire, in the year 1744 ; and were dug up from the depth of 6 feet out of the 

 peat moss, 



But what he thinks more extraordinary is, that the late earl of Carlisle's stew- 

 ard, Mr. Joice, in digging the foundation of a house and cellars, found, at the 

 depth of 6 feet, a part of a jaw-bone with teeth, and a horn of a buck, or stag 

 of most exceedingly large dimensions, which lay buried under 2 feet of common 

 soil ; then one foot of scalping or sand-bed ; then 1 8 inches of stone ; then an- 

 other vein of sand, 6 inches ; then another head of stone ; under which lay those 

 before-mentioned jaw-bone, and piece of horn; which, in all appearance, to 

 every one that viewed these stratums, had never been removed. 



Dimensions of the Deers' Horns in the Musipum of the Royal Society. 



Length of the skull 1 foot 4 inches. 



Breadth of the forehead O Q 



Length of each horn 5 O 



Distance of the extreme tips of the horns . . 6 O 



The Phenomena of Venus, represented in an Orrery made by Mr. James Fergu- 

 son,* agreeable to the Observations of Seignior Bianchini, N" 479, P- 127. 



In all the common orreries, Venus is represented as having her axis perpendi- 

 cular to the plane of the ecliptic, and her diurnal motion on it equal to 23 hours 



• Mr. Ferguson was a very uncommon genius, especially in mechanical contrivances and struc- 

 tures, for he executed many machines himself in a very neat manner. He had a good taste in astrono- 

 my, and generally in natural and experimental philosophy ; he also possessed a happy manner of expla- 

 nation in his lectures, in a clear, easy, and familiar way. Yet his general matliematical knowledge was 

 little or nothing. Of algebra he understood little more than the notation ; and he never could de- 

 monstrate a proposition in geometry ; his constant method being to satisfy himself, as to the truth of 

 any problem, with a very exact construction and measurement by scale and compasses. 



