lii 
peated reference to catalogues, at least as to information, which 
the arrangement itself may directly convey, even to the cursory 
observer ; whilst the mind of the more attentive and studious will, 
by an arrangement depending on recorded facts instead of theories, 
be led naturally to comparisons and scrutiny highly conducive to 
the advance of real knowledge. 
I am quite aware that the exact locality of a great many articles 
in the Museum is unknown, but of a very large proportion it is 
known; whilst of much of the remainder at least the county where 
they were discovered is recorded. And if the principle of geogra- 
phic arrangement were once adopted with the articles whose loca- 
lities are known, I feel confident that it would be so valued by 
parties connected with the localities of the articles, as greatly to 
facilitate historic inquiries, and secure other contributions. 
Indeed, it has always appeared to me to be due to parties pre- 
senting antiquities, due to the localities, and to the persons inte- 
rested in them, either by ownership of lands where they were found, 
or by historic events connecting their ancestors therewith, that 
antiquities taken therefrom should be preserved in some public 
museum, where their safety and connexion with the locality should 
be guaranteed. I would suggest that the publication of such a 
resolution on the part of the Academy, with the allocation of a 
suitable space, arranged even in counties, and a distinct published 
record of donors, would, if there was a spark of national pride or 
genuine patriotism in the country, soon lead to presents and be- 
quests from various parties. 
I will not presume—I am not sufficiently informed—to enter 
into the vexed question of whether or not there are sufficient dis- 
tinctive characteristics to mark the different eras when weapons and 
utensils of stone were used, as compared with those of compounds 
of brass, those of iron, and other metals. But I will ask, what 
pleasure or instruction there would be in looking at interminable 
ranges of stone hatchets (I do not know what sound authority there 
is for designating them “‘ Celts”), or of brazen swords, iron dirks, 
&e., and other matters of precisely the same classes? Whilst, on 
the other hand, who can look at an arrangement of the articles 
found in any one locality,—as in the several shoals of the Shannon, 
in respect to which my friend, Colonel Jones, furnished informa- 
tion; or those of Toome, Portglenone, and Portna, on the Bann 
River; and the crannogs of Ardekillan and Cloonfinlough, which 
