422 Report of the Microscopical Section. [Sess. 



Baal, and that this worship was brought to England by 

 Phoenicians who came for the tin in Cornwall ; and he shows 

 that the marks are not of common occurrence in Cornwall, as 

 they would have been had this been the ground of their first 

 introduction and of their extension to other parts of Great 

 Britain which were never visited by the Phoenicians. His 

 own theory is that the marks, being of the same character 

 throughout the country, must have been the work of a people 

 aboriginal to Britain ; and he suggests that the Cimbri, of 

 whom we have some knowledge as having preceded the Celts, 

 and who peopled Scandinavia as well as Britain, may have 

 been the cup-markers, who have, however, left us little else 

 to know about them. 



I have only one further remark to make on Sir James Y. 

 Simpson's highly interesting paper, which is to point out that 

 he has unfortunately not been able to bring forward any local 

 tradition connected with any one of the many marked stones 

 he has written about. May I claim for this small paper of 

 mine that it has a special interest, insomuch that it shows 

 the existence of a link we have with the unknown people of 

 a very ancient time in the tradition which has lingered 

 through the centuries around St Columba's " natal stone " ? 



REPORT OF THE MICROSCOPICAL SECTION. 



By Mr W. C. CRAWFORD, F.R.S.E., Convenkb. 



The Section met regularly once a - fortnight during the 

 winter session. The attendance was good, and we had 

 pleasant and informing meetings. The subject studied was 

 Algse, and we went carefully over the Liverpool Marine 

 Biological Memoir on Chondrus, and afterwards parts of 

 Oltmann's splendid work on " Algse." We intend to continue 

 the study of the Algae for some time next winter (1907-8), 

 using Oltmann as our guide ; afterwards, so far as time 

 permits, we propose to take up the Protozoa, using vol. i. 

 of ' The Cambridge Natural History ' as a text-book. 



