cepting sewer on the Roodeye, they came upon the remains of a Roman hypocaust in the centre of the street and opposite to the house occupied by Mrs. Blackburne. It was at a depth of thirteen feet from the surface, and the drawings exhibited show approximately its plan and position, for owing to the trench cut by the workmen being only two and a half feet wide, part of the exploration had to be effected by probing, and the width was not ascertained. It would appear to be simply one room of a villa, its length externally being twenty-six feet, and internally nineteen feet six inches, the walls varying from two feet nine inches to three feet in thickness. Like many similar rooms, it terminated in an apse or semicircle, which was at its western end, the exterior of the wall of which was sixty-eight feet distant from the outside of the city walls. Twelve of the pillars of the hypocaust were found in position supporting a floor of concrete from six to seven inches thick, in the semicircular part of the room, and five feet three inches only in length. This I should opine has originally borne a tesselated pavement. The remaining pillars were all more or less destroyed, though sufficient was left to show their previous existence. About fifty-six were believed to have existed in the portion of the building investigated. These pillars rested on a concrete floor, and were formed of tiles, the lowest of which was sixteen inches in length by ten and a half inches wide and two inches thick, then followed seven other tiles, one upon another, each eight inches square, which formed the shaft of the pillar; then came the cap formed of two tiles, the lowest being one foot square and one and a half inch thick, the upper one seventeen inches square and two inches thick, and on these were large tiles two feet square which reached from pillar to pillar and supported the concrete roof. Near the walls stone slabs were used instead of tiles, but they were of exactly the same dimensions as the latter. Remains of flue tiles were found, but not in situ. The soil above the concrete roof was entirely "made ground." In it were numerous bones,

some coins, one of Constantine, and a fragment of an inscribed Roman tile. The bottom floor of the hypocaust was found to be twenty-one feet above the level of the Roodeye, and in cutting through the city walls at the end of the street no Roman work was met with, the masonry being very poor and rotten. The conclusion seems to be, as stated in Roman Cheshire, pp. 92 and 320, that the slope of the hill from the wall of the castrum on its summit to the verge of the estuary, now the Roodeye, was occupied by villas, to one of which the hypocaust found belonged.

Mr. T. Oxley exhibited and described a valuable collection of Esquimaux stone and bone implements.

Mr. George C. Yates exhibited a collection of Esqiumaux curiosities, consisting of stone and bone arrow-heads, harpoons, rude dagger of bone and iron, and bone snow

scraper.

Mr. Oxley read the following note on these exhibits: The Esquimaux are without doubt rapidly passing away as a race, and in another century their extinction as a people will, judging from their decreasing rate, take place. The study of their manners and customs, and more especially of the art displayed in their implements of every day life, is on this account of great interest. The food of these inhabitants of a desolate country is obtained entirely by hunting and fishing, yet after centuries of experience their weapons and implements of the chase are rude and inefficient, yet at the same time they show in a marked manner excellence of construction and frequently decorative art, the latter taking the form of imitation and delineation of familiar objects around them, and this of a character totally different from anything known at the present time among partially civilised races. The ordinary equipment of the Esquimaux hunter is the bow and arrow, harpoon and lance, and a blunt knife or dagger of varying forms used for two purposes, viz., as a weapon of offence and as a flaying knife and scraper; the sling is now little used, but its use has long been known to them, and in figs. 1 and 2 are shown two specimens of

sling handles of very perfect construction. Having no wood of any sufficient size and being unacquainted with metals, the Esquimaux are dependent for almost every implement they possess upon the bones and hard parts of animals, and upon stone. The latter they use or have used very much in the same way as other peoples during their prehistoric period, for the manufacture of knives, scrapers, hammers, and other implements. The walrus or morse is the chief source of supply for the material for their implements, and there is hardly any portion of its body that is not made use of. The reindeer and seal in like manner contribute. In . studying the form and construction of their implements, a great similarity will be observed to primitive weapons of other nations. This is very noticeable in the dagger or knife (fig. 5). It will be observed that the blade, which is of hard, black, slatey stone, bears a very striking resemblance to the dagger blades of bronze so frequently found in the graves of the ancient inhabitants of this country during the bronze age. This knife is from an early Esquimaux burial place, probably at least two centuries old. The blade is about a quarter of an inch in thickness where it is attached to the handle or hilt, and is pierced with two holes for the retaining cord; the handle is rather more than twice as thick, and is halved down to admit the blade. It is pierced with another hole a little higher up the blade, and joining these three holes is a deep groove cut in the ivory; this is for the fastening cord to lie in, and this cord was made of twisted sinew or tendon, but it has perished since it was brought from the Arctic regions. Fig. 6 is another of these blades, but which has from repeated sharpenings become all but unusable; it has since been worn as a relic or memento to keep green the memory of some departed mighty slayer of walruses and seals. Fig. 3 is another very interesting specimen of a flaying knife and dagger, exhibited by Mr. Yates. The handle is of drift wood, and attached to it is a stock of ivory, about eight inches long, into the end of which a precious piece of hoop-iron has