ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
287 
Society with a portion of its collection, I shall be happy to increase that 
donation with specimens from my own collection. 
In conclusion, allow me to read an extract from a letter written by 
Dr. Johnson, in the year 1777, to our distinguished countryman, Charles 
O’Conor, of Belanagare:—“If you could give a history, though im¬ 
perfect, of the Irish nation from the introduction of Christianity to the 
date of the invasion from England, you would amplify knowledge with 
new views and new objects. Set about it, therefore, if you can; do what 
you can easily do without anxious exactness. Lay the foundation, and 
leave the superstructure to posterity.” If I have in the foregoing com¬ 
munication elicited inquiry, or laid a foundation for others to build upon, 
I shall have accomplished the task which I proposed to myself, and, I 
hope, interested a meeting composed of gentlemen who have always 
evinced an anxious desire to forward the best objects of Ireland. 
Denis Crofton, Esq., read a paper on a Collation of the MS. of the 
Bhagavad Gita, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. 
Dr. Apjohn read a communication from Lieutenant Benny, B.E., on 
the Constants of Barometric Eormula. 
Bev. J. H. Jellett made some remarks on Mr. Benny’s paper. 
W. B. Wilde, Esq., presented a bronze celt, on the part of Dr. 
O’Meara, of Carlow; and also, from William Smith O’Brien, Esq., a 
wooden stake and part of a cow’s horn found under a great depth 
of bog on the summit of a mountain near Cahirmoyle. The stake 
was supposed by Mr. O’Brien, as explained in his note, to have formed 
a “portion of an ancient fence, which has been covered for many cen¬ 
turies with bog. Eleven or twelve feet of turf have been cut from 
the mass of bog under which it was found. Mr. O’Brien conceives that 
it is an interesting relic, as it proves clearly that at a very distant period 
of time the inhabitants of this country possessed sharp-edged tools, 
which were capable of clearing timber as perfectly as it could now be 
cut by the best modern hatchet. It also proves that land which at 
present is of no value except for turf was formerly used for pasturage, 
and enclosed for that purpose, though it lies in the vicinity of some of 
the richest land in Ireland. From this circumstance Mr. O’Brien infers 
that in these early times the county of Limerick was highly peopled ; 
since, if the population were scanty, they would not have taken the 
trouble to enclose land which, from its position, never could have been 
of good quality. Mr. O’Brien also at the same time placed at the dis¬ 
posal of the Academy a horn which was found in the same locality, under 
the same layer of turf. Mr. O’Brien possesses other specimens of these 
stakes, and he has been told that cart-loads have, at different times, been 
found by the peasantry when cutting the turf in the same locality.” 
The thanks of the Academy were voted to the respective donors. 
The Academy then adjourned. 
