British Rainfall in 1877.—Mr. Symons' capital volume has been published since our last issue. It contains rainfall returns from about 2,000 stations in the British Islands, and is, as usual, an excellent example of the amazing perseverance and industry of the compiler. For the British isles generally the year 1877 shows an excess of about twenty-seven per cent. above the average, the figures being as follows:—
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The Colletanea Antiqua.—Mr. C. Roach Smith has just issued to his subscribers the first part of his seventh volume. It contains admirably illustrated papers on Roman Potters' Kilns discovered near Colchester; Notes on some of the Antiquities of France: Roman Leaden Seals, and British Oppida and Roman Castra. In the last-named paper the author points out how commonly the British or Celtic earthworks are confounded with Roman camps, and illustrates this by reference to the fortification at Lingfield Park, in Surrey, The fine earthwork on Borough Hill, in Leicestershire, we consider to be certainly of British construction, and we trust to describe it, with some others in the same county, in a future number of the "Midland Naturalist."
Rhætic Fossils,—The beautiful star-fish, Ophiolepis Damesti, (Wright) first found in England by Mr. Harrison, near Leicester, turned up some time afterwards at Garden Cliff, on the Severn. We now hear that the same radiate has been found by the Rev. I. B. Brodie, near Stratford-on-Avon, and by Mr. H. J. Elsee, near Rugby. Evidently it only wanted looking for.
South African Fossils.—To lovers of science it may not be uninteresting to know that a collection of fossil Saurians has just been shipped for England by Mr. Thomas Bain, when, at the request of Professor Owen, was allowed by the Government to undertake the work of collecting. It consists of 308 crania of the Dicynndon, Oudenodon, Lycasaurus, Galesaurns, and the Cynodracon, and some skulls apparently quite new to science, fossil wood, vegetable impressions, and a sample of Beaufort coal. Mr. Bain found the head of a Saurian in the matrix of the coal, within two feet of the seam, a fact, he considers, worthy of record, as it may give some clue to determine the age of our Cape coal period, about which there is much diversity of opinion at present.—The Cape Argus.
Roman Inscriptions.—In the Leicester Town Museum there is an interesting fragment of the beautiful red polished ware known us Samian, which the Romano-British settlers imported from Gaul, and which they prized so highly. It is a slightly curved piece, perhaps originally part of the rim of a bowl, and is about 3½in. long by 1½in. broad. It is pierced for suspension round the neck, and on it is incised, in a bold, clear letter, Verecunda Lydia, Lucius Gladiator, Evidently it was a present, a keepsake, from one Laucius, a gladiator, to Verecunda Lydia, his sweetheart. It was found in Bath Lane, Leicester, during the progress of the sewerage works in 1854, and is believed to be the only inscription extant from the hand of one whose stated occupation it was to brave the perils of the public arena.
Reports of Societies.
Birmingham and Midland Institute Scientific Society.—June 10th, The members made an excursion to the Vale of Llangollen. Among the places visited were Crow Castle, Valle Crucis Abbey, Llantisilio, and the Berwyn Hills, from which they obtained a very fine view.
