290 
hardened on exposure to the atmosphere. The brass guns were appa- 
rently as sharp in their ornamental castings, and as sound, as at the 
period of their immersion. A fragment of tarred rope-yarn exhi- 
bited a remarkable instance of durability. It is supposed to have 
formed part of the sea-store, of the Royal George, or of one of 
the cables used by Mr. Tracey in an attempt to raise the ship soon 
after she was lost. A piece of 23-inch cable-laid cordage, made 
from the yarns of this junk, bore 21 cwt. 3qrs. 7lbs.; a piece of 
similar cable, from yarn spun in 1830, bore only 20 ewt. 1 qr. 7 lbs .; 
but another manufactured from yarn spun in 1838, bore 23 ewt. 
1 qr. 7 lbs. 
The paper contained various details respecting the construction 
and measurement of the Royal George, and of the different descrip- 
tions of timber used in building the ship. Appended to the Me- 
moir was also a catalogue of twenty-three specimens sent for exhi- 
bition, a portion of each of which was presented to the Society's 
Museum. 
A letter, dated November, 1839, was afterwards read, addressed to 
Dr. Mantell by Mr. C. Hullmandel, “ On the Subsidence of the 
Coast near Puzzuoli.” 
It 1813, Mr. Hullmandel resided during four months in the Ca- 
puchin Convent, which is situated at the entrance of Puzzuoli, and 
on the seaward side of the road towards Naples. The oldest friar, 
styled zl molto reverende, then ninety-three years of age, informed 
Mr. Hullmandel, that when he was a young man, the road towards 
Naples passed between the convent and the sea, but that from the 
gradual subsiding of the soil it had been obliged to be changed to 
its present course. During Mr. Hullmandel’s residence, the refec- 
tory and the entrance-gate were from six to twelve inches under 
water, whenever strong westerly winds prevailed. Thirty years 
previously such an occurrence never took place. The small wharf 
at Puzzuoli was also constantly under water during westerly winds. 
Mr. Hullmandel therefore infers, that as it is not probable the archi- 
tect of the convent would have so placed the ground-floor as to ex- 
pose it to inundations, or the builder of the wharf would have so 
constructed a landing-place as to render it liable to be overflowed ; 
—a gradual subsidence of the soil has been going on for many 
years, and that this change tends to corroborate the opinion re- 
specting the differences of relative level which have taken place 
in the Temple of Jupiter Serapis. 
A notice was next read, “ On part of Borneo Proper ;” by G. Tra- 
descant Lay, Esq. Communicated by the President. 
The country visible in the background, on approaching the 
estuary into which the river of Borneo flows, is of variable, though 
nowhere of considerable elevation. ‘Towards the east; however, is 
a remarkable range of mountainous ridges, rising one above an- 
other like steps, and trending, the author supposes, towards Kini- 
balu, the most lofty point in the island. 
