MAP INDEX OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS. I23 



** From communications received relating to the destruction of earth-works 

 and other historic and prehistoric remains, this conference is rendered sensible of 

 the necessity for the systematic indexing of important anthropological remains, 

 county by county, with a view to their preservation. It therefore commends the 

 collection of material to Local Societies, and expresses the hope that steps may be 

 taken to co-ordinate the various elements involved, and to arrange for the publi- 

 cation of the work." 



Subsequently in view of Mr. Coffey's and Mr. Read's remarks 

 on the vandalism on Dartmoor, it was resolved to refer the 

 following to the General Council of the Association : — 



" That the Council be requested to impress upon his Majesty's Government the 

 desirability of appointing an Inspector of Ancieni Monuments under the Ancient 

 Monuments Act in the place of the late Lieut. -General Pitt-Rivers. 



" That the Council be requested to call the attention of his Majesty's Govern- 

 ment to the destruction of Ancient Monuments, especially on Dartmoor, which 

 is authorised under the terms of the Highway Act, 5 & 6 Wni. IV., c. 50, the 

 provisions of which are unrepealed by later Acts ; and to urge the repeal of this- 

 section of the Act." 



<* A PLEA FOR AN ORDNANCE MAP INDEX 

 OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS.' 



AT the Conference of Local Scientific Societies (British 

 Association Meeting), Belfast, a paper having the above 

 title, was read. It is from the pen of Mr. Charles H. Read, 

 F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of British and Mediaeval 

 Antiquities at the British Museum. Similar arguments to tliose 

 advanced by Mr. Read have been put forward from time to time, 

 notably by Prof. Meldola in his Presidential Address, 1885 

 {Trans. E.F.C. iii., 62), repeated in an expanded form at the 

 Southport meeting of the British Association in the same 

 year {Trans. E.F.C. iv., 116). And, subsequently, Mr. Read 

 himself gave an address to the Essex Field Club at the meeting 

 in January, 1902, on the subject of " Local Archaeological 

 Investigation " (summarised in the Essex Naturalist, vol. xii., 

 pp. 252-3). We now propose to supplement these remarks by 

 extracts from the Belfast paper, Mr. Read's official position, as 

 the representative of British Archaeology, giving a value and 

 force to his pleas beyond anything that can be said by laymen. 



After alluding to the attention lately bestowed upon the 

 preservation of Stonehenge, Mr. Read continued : — 



"It is not of Stonehenge that I wish to plead, but rather for its humbler 

 brethren whom the breath of fame has for the most part jxissed over. I plead 



