o 



16 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ground and polished like a small roller, a bone ornament pierced 

 for hanging or stringing, a large semicircular bone pin, and some 

 other small articles of less importance. Another interment of a 

 female was afterwards found in the same tumulus, similarly placed 

 on its left side. We are inclined to think that these two ladies 

 were anything but, what the newspaper account gives of them, 

 "British Matrons." There are no circumstances in the description 

 of them which are not found in the early Anglo-Saxon — we should 

 say in this case, Anglian interments. The Anglo-Saxons did some- 

 times lay their dead in the grave on the side with the knees bent 

 up ; we have observed it ourselves in more than one instance in the 

 Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of East Kent, and the only body we ever 

 dug up in an Anglian cemetery to the north of the Humber — at 

 Seamer, near Scarborough — was laid on its left side, with the knees 

 doubled up towards the chin, and an unmistakable Saxon knife by 

 its side. Perhaps the Angles of Northumbria buried in this form, 

 when they did not burn their dead. The Angles in Britain practised 

 both modes of interment. Again, the cowry-shell — the oriental 

 cowry, usually — is especially characteristic of Anglo-Saxon graves, 

 and has been found not at all unfrequently in those of Kent. The 

 jet bead, too, the bronze pins, and the objects in bone, are all charac- 

 teristic of Anglo-Saxon interments. We ourselves have great 

 difficulty in believing in any mixture of Anglo-Saxon with Ante- 

 Roman interments. But this question leaves great room for further 

 investigation, and we look forward with great interest to Mr. Green- 

 well's promised book, which we are satisfied will be a very valuable 

 contribution to archaeological science. T. W. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



In the last number of the Intellectual Observer we stated that 

 we should give accounts of such of the more important discoveries 

 brought forward in the different sections as had not been hitherto 

 described in our pages. 



One of the most important applications of science illustrated 

 at the last meeting was the mode of converting pig-iron into 

 malleable steel by the Bessemer prpcess. This is performed in 

 instruments termed converters ; these are lined with fire clay, and 

 are so constructed that blasts of air can be forced in sixty or seventy 

 streams through the melted pig-iron, which is poured into them. 

 The air is forced in at a pressure of 20 lbs. to the square inch, and 

 is sufficient to overcome the pressure of the melted metal, and pie- 

 vent its entering the openings through which the air enters. The 



