COERESrONDING SOCIETIES. 257 



mittee and accepted. He believed that in consequence of this action 

 negotiations were now going on between the Council of the British Asso- 

 ciation and the proprietor of these remains.' 



Professor Boyd Dawkins remarked that the state of neglect into which 

 Stonehenge had been allowed to fall had by no means been overstated in 

 the resolution referred to. A person had recently been seen on a ladder 

 chipping off pieces from the horizontal stone of one of the trilithons. 



Ancient Monuments Act.—J)T. Garson pointed out that the local Socie- 

 ties could do good service by inducing the proprietors of prehistoric 

 remains to commnnicate with General Pitt-Rivers, the Inspector of 

 Ancient Monuments, with the object of placing these remains under 

 Government protection. The Chairman urged those Delegates who re- 

 presented the Northern and especially the Scotch Societies to use their 

 influence in inducing the owners of ancient remains to assist in carrying 

 out the objects of the Act. In reply to a question by Mr. F. T. Mott, as 

 to whether camps and earthworks were to be taken into consideration, 

 he did not think that any Government could be expected to become a 

 landowner to the extent of all the earthworks in the country. 



_ Frovincial Museums Committee.— Mr. P. T. Mott stated that this Com- 

 mittee had been engaged during the past year in collecting particulars 

 respecting museums other than those in London. Considerable assist- 

 ance had been given by the Secretaries of many of the local Societies. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins stated that the schedule issued by this Com- 

 mittee was a very difficult one to fill up, and he expressed a hope that 

 something shorter and simpler would be sent out. The Rev. H. Winwood 

 expressed similar views. 



Earth Tremors.— Processor Lebour stated that this subject, which he 

 had brought forward at the Conference of Delegates last year at Birming- 

 ham, had since taken a more practical shape, and that it now seemed to 

 be time that a Committee of the British Association should be formed 

 for taking the investigation in hand. Through the advocacy of Mr. 

 Symons, who was unable to be present at the Conference, Sections A 

 and G had agreed to recommend the appointment of such a Committee 

 m conjunction with Section C. The work to be done was of a pre- 

 liminary character, and its object was rather to inquire into the best 

 methods of conducting observations on Earth-Tremors than to actually 

 cause such observations to be made. The North of England Institute of 

 Mining and Mechanical Engineers had, since the Birmingham meeting, 

 carried on a series of seismoscopic observations at Marsden in the county 

 of Durham, and the daily results, extending over several months and 

 compared with a barometric curve, were shown to the meeting in the 

 form of a diagram by Mr. Walton Brown, the Secretary of the Newcastle 

 Institute Committee. The Institute possessed also a more elaborate 

 instrument, made after a pattern supplied by Professor Ewiug, which 

 registered the intensity and direction of the tremors. He stated that, 

 although such instruments as the last mentioned were probably too costly 

 to be placed at all desirable stations, this would not be the case with the 

 simpler seismoscope, which recorded merely the fact of earth-tremors 

 having taken place and the time of their occurrence. Such records 

 wou d be valuable though limited. The Corresponding Societies, if they 

 would interest themselves in the matter, might be the means of establish- 



TQoo ' Report for 1887, p. Ixxv. 



lOOO. a 



