of chief magis Mr. Lawrence us. remarks, ven him, on would as that hich was a regard sophical cer, and abours. society, hatever eving. sured st in were ster ing nd remarked that all the larger species of earth-stars, or starry puff-balls, are uncommon. The present constitutes the fourth species of Geaster found in the neighbourhood of Liverpool. It is very rare in England, though common on the Continent. Mr. MOORE exhibited from the Derby Museum numerous specimens of living North American fresh-water fish, and preserved specimens of the Physalia, or Portuguese man-of-war, and other marine specimens from the North Atlantic, imported and presented by Captain Mortimer, ship "America," Associate of the Society. The living fish belong to the following species:- Rock sun-fish, Pomotis vulgaris; pale sucker, Catostomus pallidus; shining dace, Leuciscus nitidus; and brown cat-fish, Pimelodus pullus. Of the Physalia, Captain Mortimer had succeeded in the difficult task of effectually drying several specimens, one being of large size, measuring 6 inches in the long diameter of the float, which in this and the other specimens remained fully inflated. Dried specimens of Porpita and Velella were also preserved by Captain Mortimer, and several specimens preserved in spirit, including an extremely large frog-fish, which had been kept some time alive on board ship; also small Physalia, and great numbers of Pteropods. The Rev. H. H. HIGGINS warmly complimented Captain Mortimer on his continued success in collecting, especially those minute inhabitants of the ocean which are so generally neglected, and indeed Captain Mortimer was the first man sailing from the port of Liverpool who thought them worthy of attention. Mr. MOORE stated the living fish had been safely brought through one of the stormiest passages ever experienced by Captain Mortimer, by that gentleman's original and exceedingly simple method of carrying them in fish globes suspended in the cabin like ordinary ships' lamps-a plan which has been recommended to other captains with succe The specimens exhibited are valuable and inte tions to the Museum aquaria. Other preserved and some interesting notes by Captain Mortimer, for a future meeting. . Dr. COLLINGWOOD remarked on the success attended the Society's efforts to induce officers cantile marine to use the advantages of their promoting the interests of science. The Rev. Dr. GINSBURG, Vice-President, having Chair, the following paper was read: ccessful results. teresting addived specimens, er, are reserved ss which had of the merposition in g taken the THE SOUTH LANCASHIRE DIALECT. By J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT. THE South Lancashire dialect, of which I propose to treat in the following pages, has often been brought under public. notice, from the time of Collier, a little more than a century ago, to the present day. Although I cannot undertake to throw much additional light on the subject, I may yet be able to bring together into one focus information derived from a variety of sources, scattered over a wide field, and requiring no inconsiderable amount of investigation to collect and assimilate. Every study has various aspects, and it is quite possible that the humblest student may be able either to contribute additional facts, or in some other way to add to the interest of the inquiry. By many educated persons dialects are considered as mere vulgar corruptions of the current language of the country, equivalent to the cant or slang phrases which obtain currency from time to time in particular classes of society in our great towns. This is an error which it is very desirable to eradicate. Max Müller, the great authority in the modern science of language, remarks on this subject:-"It is a mistake to imagine that dialects are everywhere corruptions of the literary language. Even in England, the local patois have many forms which are more primitive than the language of Shakspere; and the richness of their vocabulary surpasses on many points that of the classical writers of any period. Dialects have always been the feeders, rather than the channels, of a literary language; they are parallel streams, which existed long before one of them was raised to that B temporary eminence which is the result of lit vation."* As the English dialects pass gradually one i according to locality, it is not easy rightly to est precise number, but there are certain broad lines cation which are sufficiently obvious. A rough strong line of division may be drawn along the H the Mersey. The dialects to the north of thi rougher and coarser than those of the south; but pensation, they possess a force and strength w southern can hardly reach. These differences corruptions which have crept in with the course they have always existed, from the settlement of fathers in the country. During the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, & down to the eleventh, England was gradually 1 peopled by tribes of Teutonic origin from the oppo of the German Sea, who elbowed out by degrees th inhabitants so thoroughly, that, with the exception mountains and rivers, scarcely any of our localitie their Cymric names; though, as we shall see here larger amount of the Cambrian tongue has passed i language than is generally supposed. These settlers various races, the principal of which are handed down as Angles, Saxons, and Geats or Jutes. It is proba the nature of things, and is confirmed on examination these races occupied in England the same relative posi they had done in their own country previously, that i those living furthest to the south settled in the so England, and that those from the north of Germany, cially from Holstein and Angel-land, settled in the The Jutes-which is only another name for the Go contributed the smallest number of immigrants, and s * Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 49. in the Isle of Wight and on the south coast. The Saxons were the next in number, and peopled more especially the districts south of the Trent. The country north of the Humber was settled by the Angles, and the middle band between the Trent and Humber constituted a border land, occupied in part by both races. That these three great dialectical divisions have always existed there is ample evidence, but in the literary remains of the Saxon and early English periods they are not very strongly marked, from the fact that a certain literary standard was soon arrived at, from the paucity in those early days of men. of letters, and from the intercommunication between them. Ralph Higden, writing about 1350, recognises the three divisions as existing in his time. Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle and Layamon's Brut are both West Saxon in their peculiarities. Piers Ploughman is decidedly Anglian in his dialect. His poems, written about the middle of the fourteenth century, are constructed on the alliterative principle of the Anglo-Saxon verse, e. g.— "In a somer seson, Whan softe was the sonne, I shoop me into shroudes In habite as a heremite."-Vision. To this there seems to be some allusion, as a northern peculiarity, by Chaucer, writing a little later in the century. In the Persone's Tale he says "But trusteth wel, I am a sotherne man ; I cannot geste rom, ram, ruff' by my letter, In the Reve's Tale the two "poure scoleres," who are said to have been born "Fer in the North, I cannot tellen where," are made to speak in the Yorkshire dialect. |