276 ANNUAL KECOED OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



raents obtained in the mounds and other localities in the 

 steppes of the Black Sea. 



EESULTS OF THE BRUSSELS ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONVENTIOIS". 



According to Quatrefages, the principal scientific result of 

 the recent national congress of archaeologists and anthropol- 

 oo-ists, held at Brussels during the past summer, was the de- 

 termination of the existence of a pojDulation in Belgium dur- 

 ing the quaternary period, and of the extent of its culture 

 and mode of life, proving, also, the existence of a trade with 

 foreign countries ; and, likewise, that among the people of the 

 present day there are elements handed down from the oldest 

 times, even from the most ancient stone period. 30 C^De- 

 cem^er, 1872, 94. 



PRESERVATION OF BRITISH PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. 



An important movement has just been made in Great Brit- 

 ain, looking toward the assumption, on the part of the gov- 

 ernment, of the care of the numerous monuments of prehis- 

 toric times found in different parts of the British Islands, and 

 variously known as cromlechs, dolmens, earth-works, mounds, 

 cairns, etc. Some of these (Stonehenge, for instance) are cel- 

 ebrated the world over on account of their magnitude and 

 general interest, while numerous others of greater or less im- 

 portance have a local history and consideration. It has been 

 a source of much regret that these objects have been disap- 

 pearing with great rapidity, the stone being broken up for 

 building purposes, and the earth-works razed by the opera- 

 tions of the farmer and otherwise. 



As the only means of preventing these injuries. Sir John 

 Lubbock has introduced a bill into the present Parliament, 

 with a fair prospect of its becoming a law. It is proposed to 

 place the monuments referred to in charge of a body of Com- 

 missioners, who are, for the principal part, high public func- 

 tionaries, and three of them to be named by the Crown. 

 They are to have charge of certain monuments sj)ecified, but 

 with the provision that others not indicated may, with the 

 permission of the Treasury, be brought under their control. 

 When that has been done, any injury or damage to the mon- 

 uments will be treated as malicious injury, and become penal, 

 unless the written permission of the Commissioners has been 



