feet long, but it is thought would reach, if deprived of its curves, 1000 feet. The jaws of the serpent are represented as widely distended, as if in the act of swallowing. In the interstice is an oval or egg-shaped mound.' This repetition of a symbol is considered as further proof of Eastern derivation.
Do not suppose, however, that this is a sample of the whole volume, for ample details and information are given on all matters connected with the Indianstheir arts, habits, pursuits, pictorial literature (so to speak), sports, and agriculture. Some idea of their capabilities in husbandry may be gathered from the fact, that in Michigan, ancient 'garden-beds' have been discovered, extending for 150 miles along the banks of rivers. Students will find a mine of information in this book, which, though but the first of a series, contains nearly 600 pagesa rare feast for ethnologists.
The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin have published a report of their proceedings, which comprise reports on rain-falls, meteors, ancient urns, and other Irish antiquities, besides Roman and Carthaginian; on hygrometry, chiefly with regard to the pressure of the dew-point; and on artificial islands. Of the latter, it appears that several exist in different parts of Ireland; but the one to which attention is particularly directed is near Strokestown, Roscommon. The lake Clonfinlough having been drained by the Board of Works, the structure of the islet, which had long occupied its centre, was laid bare. It proved to be about 130 feet in diameter, constructed on oak piles, forming a sort of 'triple stockade,' with stems laid flat towards the centre for a floor, over which earth, clay, and marl were heaped, with two flat irregular stone-floors covering the whole at different depths below the surface. Two canoes were also found, each hollowed out of a single tree, and a great collection of miscellaneous ornaments and domestic utensilsall of which being illustrative of different periods of Irish history, will receive due attention at the hands of Irish antiquaries. Visitors to the Society's Museum will be gratified to know that Mr Petrie is preparing a catalogue of that valuable and interesting assemblage of rarities. He is to begin with the Stone Period, and come down to the Bronze and Iron, according to their respective dates, with dissertations prefixed. This is following the good example set by your Scottish Society of Antiquaries.
It is a fact honourable to the society that they do not confine their honours exclusively to contributors to their own 'Transactions.' At their late anniversary, they gave their gold medal to the Rev. J.H. Jellett, for his labours in treating the noblest mathematical subjects in a way to make them intelligible to students. As the president said in his address: 'Descending from the more desirable position of an inventor to the humbler but more useful one of enabling others to place themselves on a level with himself, by compiling for their use an excellent elementary treatise, he has conferred on his species a benefit of the highest order,' in a work which otherwise was 'as little likely to be given to the world as it was desirable that it should be so.'
It is time to close; but I must first clear off a few miscellaneous items. The Admiralty Report concerning the Arctic expeditions is canvassed pretty freely, and with significant hints that justice has not been rendered in its conclusions. We can only hope that really efficient commanders will be sent out with the expedition that is to be despatched in April or May next; if not, it will be abortive, as the others have been, and we shall never know what has become of Franklin. It appears that the news of Collinson's ships being on their return is unfounded. It was communicated from the United States, and has been contradicted; and for all we know to the contrary, Collinson and his coadjutor Maclure may come home next summer by way of Baffin's Bay. There are now 226 telegraph stations connected with the central establishment in Lothbury, behind the Bank of England. Of these, 70 are principal stations, at which the attendance is day and night; and in the whole, a distance of 2500 miles is embraced, with 800 more over which the wires are now being stretched. The charges for transmission of messages have been lowered with a beneficial result, the business of the telegraph having greatly increased. There must be a still further reduction before the 'thought-flasher' becomes as generally available here as it is in America. It is now in real earnest going to Ireland. A ship has been despatched to fetch Cleopatra's so-called 'needle:' the Panopticon at length has found a local habitation, and is assuming a tangible form in the shape of bricks and mortar:
ocean steamers are more than ever talked about; and every month a new one, better than all before, is launched: gold, too, is a favourite topic; and Australian and Californian mining-shares are plentiful in the market; so also are those of Irish Waste-Land Improvement Companies, who, in addition to the reclamation, propose to grow beet-root, flax, and chicory. At last we have got one or two penny news-roomsnot so good, however, as yours in Edinburgh; and a project is mooted to establish reading and waiting rooms combined, in different parts of the capital. There is talk, too, of central railway termini, of new bridges, new streets, and of converting Kennington Common into a parkhow soon to be realised remains to be seen.