doubled up, and therewith an instrument formed of bone and iron, and a leaden plate inscribed—Hic requiescit Wiliamus senex fellcis memorie, and on the reverse—Primus Episcopus. These were, doubtless, the remains of William, first resident bishop of Orkney, removed, as it is stated, after the elongation of the Cathedral at the close of the XIIth century. The tomb of Bishop Thomas de Tulloch, (A.D. 1422) had also been opened, and Sir Henry produced drawings of the pastoral staff, with the chalice and paten formed of wax, found in his grave.
Mr. Worsaae addressed the meeting, and desired to call their attention to the special interest connected with the Cathedral church of the Orkneys. He had recently taken occasion, in his "Account of the Danes and Norwegians" in the British Islands, to describe the settlement of the Jarls in those islands, the central point of the Norwegian power in the north of Scotland. The Jarl Ragnvald, it is recorded, vowed to St. Magnus, that if success attended his endeavours to obtain the mastery over these islands, he would erect a noble church to his honour. Having obtained the dominion in 1137, he forthwith commenced the work. Sir Henry Dryden had kindly placed at his (Mr. Worsaae's) disposal the admirable plans and drawings now before the meeting, and he had thus been enabled in his recent publication to present some representations, although on a very inadequate scale, of this highly interesting building. Its preservation was an object well deserving of the attention of government, as a national monument.
It was unanimously determined, on a proposition by S. R. Solly, Esq., seconded by Ashurst Majendie, Esq., that measures should be adopted, as on further inquiry might be deemed most advisable, to ensure by appeal to government, or by courteous remonstrance with the Town Council of Kirkwall, the conservation of the venerable Cathedral of the Orkneys.
Mr. W. Sidney Gibson sent a memoir descriptive of the remains of Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland, with an account of its foundation and history.
Mr. Berthold Seeman gave an account of inscriptions copied by him from the granite rocks upon the Isthmus of Panama, in the province of Veraguaz, and laid before the meeting several beautifid drawings, representing the ancient remains discovered in that locality. He described, also, the curious sepulchral cists, and accumulations of stones, burial-places of the ancient inhabitants; earthen vessels are found in them, frequently containing small golden eagles. The urns are of glazed ware and good workmanship. Amongst the masses of stones are usually found tripod vessels of granite, used for grinding grain; no ornaments or fictile urns occur in these deposits.
Mr. Worsaae desired to avail himself of the present occasion to invite the attention of English antiquaries to the importance of a careful comparison between the antiquities of Europe and the vestiges of the early occupants of America. He had recently been engaged in examining certain large deposits of the remains of shell-fish on the coasts of Denmark, with which are found implements of bone, pottery, hatchets formed of stags' horns, &c. Considerable doubt had arisen amongst northern antiquaries regarding these accumulations, some regarding them as merely natural deposits, unconnected with the traces of early occupants; and the subject had occasioned so much interest that a committee had been specially
