896 REPORT— 1892. 



The followiDg Papers and Reports were read : — 



1. On the Organisation of Local Anthropological Research. 

 Bij B. W. Brabeook. 



The writer has been authorised by a joint committee of delegates from the 

 Society of Antiquaries, the Follilore Society, and the Anthropological Institute 

 to communicate to the Section a plan for an ethnographical survey of the United 

 Kingdom, by which observations should be made simultaneously in selected 

 localities on the ancient remams, the local customs, and the physical characters of 

 the people. The delegates would largely rely for assistance in carrying out this 

 scheme upon the corresponding societies of the British Association, and an analysis 

 of the two hundred or more papers published by such societies in connection with 

 the subjects of Section H recorded during the last seven years shows that as many 

 as twenty-nine local societies have been engaged in valuable original anthropo- 

 logical work. These and other societies, as well as those in union with the Society 

 of Antiquaries, would doubtless be willing to act upon a uniform plan. As mate- 

 rials for the formation of such a plan of action the writer refers to Mr. Payne's 

 archseological survey of the county of Kent, aud to those of other counties which 

 have already been completed on the same model ; to the collection of Gloucester- 

 shire Folklore and the ' Handbook of Folklore,' published by the Folklore 

 Society, and to the second edition of ' Notes aud Queries on Anthropology,' just 

 completed by the Anthropological Institute. He also refers to the reports of the 

 Anthropometric Committee, and especially to the scheme for collection of photo- 

 graphs, in respect of which Mr. Galton lias favoured him with some practical 

 suggestions. AH these will have to be reduced by the delegates to a brief and 

 simple code of instructions. The matter is one that will not brook undue delay, as 

 the evidence is fast slipping out of our grasp. 



2. Report of the Anthropometric Laboratory Committee. 

 See Reports, p. 618. 



3. Report of the Anthropological Notes and Queries Committee. 

 See Reports, p. 537. 



4. Discovery of the Common Occurrence of Paloiollthic Weapons in Scotland. 



By Rev. Frederick Smith. 



The author shows that the opinion of scientific men, with regard to the ques- 

 tion of the occurrence of the relics of PaUeolithic man in Scotland, is down to the 

 present time of a negative character. It is pi-etty confidently asserted that north 

 of a line across the Lower Middle of England ' implement-bearing strata ' do not 

 <iccur. 



But from an inspection in 1883 of the alluvial deposits of the South of England 

 and North-east France, as well as in a part of the Rhine Valley, he was led to 

 infer that it was well-nigh impossible that Paljeolithic man could have been shut 

 out of Scotland during the enormous lapse of time represented by the implement- 

 yielding strata of the south. This conclusion was based also upon the result of 

 eleven years' observations upon rivers and river phenomena made previous to 1883 

 in the valleys of Scotland ; and on his return north in that year he determined to 

 put to proof the negative opinions regarding this question. This quest has been 

 prosecuted now for nine years, with, in the face of general opinion, extraordinarily 

 affirmative results. 



He has made systematic research in the soils, with the striking result that in 

 the neighbourhood of Perth certain angular stones occur commonly in the soils of 

 certain areas, and are entirely absent from others. 



