396 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



have been opened, presenting somewhat varied examples of hypo- 

 causts, and remains of tesselated pavements, all throwing new light 

 on the condition and manners of the inhabitants of this island during 

 the Roman period. One of the hypocausts recently uncovered is 

 unusual in character : the ground has been first cut into channels 

 radiating from a centre, and afterwards perforated, and faced with 

 tiles, instead of the ordinary arrangement of supporting columns of 

 tiles. The part on which Mr. Joyce is now at work, is supposed, 

 from the appearance of the buildings and from the various objects 

 found in it, to have been the forum of the Roman city. Some of 

 the houses present the appearance of having been altered more than 

 once from their original plan, as though through restorations and 

 adaptations after they had been destroyed. This is not uncommon in 

 the remains of Roman buildings in this island. 



An ancient pyramid has been recently discovered in the vast 

 plains between New Mexico and California, through which the Rio 

 Colorado flows. It has been originally about 130 feet high, with a 

 platform of a few feet square at the top. It presents the appearance 

 of having at some period suffered from an earthquake. The resem- 

 blance of these curious monuments of a primitive Mexican civil- 

 ization to those of Egypt is very remarkable. 



A Roman inscription has been found on the shore near the now 

 small town of Skinburness, on the coast of Cumberland. Formerly 

 a town of some importance stood at Skinburness, but it was destroyed 

 by a great irruption of the sea so long ago as 1301. It is a fragment 

 of an altar dedicated to the deities addressed on it as matribvs parcis. 

 The worship of the decs matres, usually represented as three females 

 seated, and holding fruit, was extensively spread over the north- 

 western provinces of the Roman emphe. Here they are identified 

 with the three Parcse, or Fates. The discovery of this stone would 

 seem to show that the old town of Skinburness had occupied a 

 Roman site. T. W. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY— November 7. 



The following communications were read : — 



On some Remains of Large Dinosaurian Reptiles prom the 

 Stoembekg Mountains, South -Africa. By Professor T. H. Huxley, 

 F.R.S., V.P.G.S. — The specimen more particularly described in this 

 paper is a portion of a right femur, twenty-five and a half inches 

 long, so that the entire femur may be safely assumed to have ex- 

 ceeded thirty inches in length. The peculiar form of the bone, and 

 the characters and position of the trochanters, leave no doubt of the 

 Dinosaurian affinities of the reptile to which it belonged, which 

 must have been comparable in point of size to its near allies, the 

 Megalosauriis and the Iguanodon. To the former of these it pos- 

 sesses the closest affinity, but differs in the proportional size and 





