255 



" were entitled to certain privileges, contained in a Gothic 

 inscription engraved on a stone pillar."* 



2. There occurs, in the inscription on the Newton stone, a 

 character of very peculiar form, which appears in a Runic 

 inscription figured by Goransson.f Unfortunately, that anti- 

 quary was obliged to leave the Runic inscription itself unde- 

 ciphered, in consequence of several of the characters which 

 are introduced into it being unknown. 



Sir W. R. Hamilton gave an account of the application of 

 the calculus of quaternions to problems respecting the con- 

 struction of a circle touching three given circles on a 

 sphere ; and of a sphere touching four given spheres. 



The Rev. Charles Graves laid before the Academy the 

 following account of certain ancient Irish manuscripts in the 

 possession of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- 

 land. 



" Being in Edinburgh for a few days last summer, I en- 

 deavoured to obtain access to the Irish manuscripts, which I 

 had learned were deposited in the collection of the Highland 

 Society. By the kindness of the Secretary, Mr. Hall Max- 

 well, 1 was allowed not only to see them, but to examine 

 them at my leisure ; and 1 now beg to submit to the Aca- 

 demy the following brief account of the contents of the more 

 remarkable ones. 



" At the period when the controversy respecting the au- 

 thenticity of the poems of Ossian was at its height, the 

 Highland Society undertook to collect oral and documentary 

 evidence, with a view to throw light upon this vexed ques- 

 tion. A vast mass of writings, most of them recent and of 

 little value, but some of undoubted antiquity and importance, 



* Johnstone's Lodbrokar Quida, p. 102. 

 t Bautil, p. 8, fig. 25. 



