ON EXPLORATIONS IN CRETE. 445 



tilings, plainly built houses of limestone, roadways and cisterns, and a 

 rubbisli pit full of terra-cottas. A building larger and more massive tlian 

 the rest was completely excavated : it contains eight rooms and has a 

 front seventy-five feet long. Outside the town two minor sanctuaries 

 were investigated : one adjoining the spring already mentioned contained 

 large terra-cotta figures of a goddess of quite new type. A survey of the 

 whole site was made by Mr. Wells, and a systematic exploration of the 

 surrounding country by Mr. Marshall. 



Although Praesos was barren of Mycenean remains, they are evident 

 enough at Petras, on the modern harbour of Sitia, seven miles to the north. 

 I made some trials here in June. Nine-tenths of the site has been ruth- 

 lessly terraced by its Moslem owner, and would not repay a large exca- 

 vation. The remaining tenth is occupied by cottages, and here under the 

 roadway it was possible to uncover one side of a large building containing 

 pithoi and kamerais vases. On the hill-top there remain a few foun- 

 dations of a large mansion, and outside the walls — for Petras is unique 

 among early Cretan sites in possessing remains of fortifications — was 

 found a rubbish heap of the now familiar type, yielding whole cups and 

 lamps and shreds of earthenware and steatite. Ten miles east of Petras, 

 across the Itanos peninsula, is another early site, Palaiokastro, which has 

 been sadly mauled of late years by clandestine excavation. In the course 

 of one of his exploring journeys Mr. Marshall made a remarkable dis- 

 covery here. Heavy rains — the same that flooded Mr. Hogarth out of his 

 quarters on the beach at Zakro — had exposed the corner of a very fine 

 larnax. The native diggers had not noticed it, and he lost no time in 

 securing it, and some fine vases for the Candia museum. One of its four 

 picture-panels represents a double axe planted upright upon a column, an 

 important illustration of the axe and pillar cults discussed by Mr. Evans 

 in the 'Journal of Hellenic Studies,' 



The Micro-cltemisirji of Colin. — Beport of the CommHtee, considinq of 

 Professor E. A. Schafer (07iairma?i), Professor E. Ray Lankestek, 

 Professor W. D. Halliburton, Mr. G. C. Bourne, Professor 

 J. J. Mackenzie, and Professor A. B. Macallum (Secretary). 

 (Drawn up hij the Secretary.) 



The research of the previous year on the distribution of phosphoius in 

 animal and vegetable cells was continued with the view of making the 

 field of investigation as large as possible. The results of these observa- 

 tions cover a large number of details, but these, while corroborating the 

 conclusions advanced in the last report on the subject, have not furnislied 

 any additional generalisation which merits special mention here. The 

 paper embodying all the results will, it is hoped, be ready for publication 

 in a few weeks. 



Micro-chemical Localisation of Oxidases. — The work of the previous 

 year on oxidases was continued, and efl^orts were made to localise them 

 micro-chemically. After a considerable amount of experimenting with 

 different leuco-compounds it was found that the reagent mixture recom- 

 mended by Rohmann and Spitzer ' for the detection of oxidising enzymes 



' 'Ueber Oxydations-Witkungcn thierischer Gewebe,' Ber. d. d. Chcm. Ge-.clL, 

 1S95, vol. xxviii. p. 5G7 



