26 



language, the ultimate necessity to migrate, all would tend to 

 develope his highest powers, and his migration southwards would 

 be that of a conqueror and civilizer of inferior races. He thus 

 reached the shores of the Mediterranean, Egypt, India — the 

 builder, perhaps, of the cyclopean monuments — to return again 

 northwards when a warmer period gave life and fertility to the re- 

 gions he had left. Philology tells us of an Aryan race whose lan- 

 guage was the parent of Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, Zend or Bactrian, 

 Lithuanian, old Sclavonic, Gothic, and Armenian. The roots 

 of this old language are found in all our modern languages. To 

 that old race we, perhaps, owe that intellectual development 

 which has placed the western nations first in the ranks of pro- 

 gress and civilization. When we consider that the tendency to 

 improve increases with improvement, what may we not hope 

 for humanity. Should the slow advance of another glacial 

 period again render these islands uninhabitable by man, the 

 great English speaking race have already made themselves a 

 home in other lands — in America, Australia, New Zealand, and 

 India. The great continent of Australia would by such a change 

 become more moist and fertile. It is yet to people ; and the 

 mighty rivers of South America are yet destined to bear on 

 their broad bosoms the noble ships of commerce. Its wild 

 savannahs, unpeopled, save by wandering tribes and lonely 

 squatters, will yet echo with the ring of the hammer, the adze, 

 and the song of an English speaking race, and fields and gardens, 

 rich in corn, and fruits, and flowers, will replace the gloomy 

 forest, and the far extending but now silent prairie. 



The usual discussion followed the reading of Mr. Smith's 

 Paper, after which a number of geological specimens were 

 exhibited, including one of the six species of Woodocrinus, from 

 the mountain limestone of Yorkshire. The species exhibited 

 (Woodocrinus macrodactylus), was a very beautiful specimen, 

 obtained by one of the members from the discoverer, Edward 

 Wood, Esq , F.G.S., of Richmond, in exchange for specimens 

 forwarded to him from this locality. 



On the 20th December, a paper on "The Roman Antiquities of 

 Bath," was read by Mr. Hancock, who explained that having 



