200 report — 1859. 



ner of the Romans, in place of the more perishable structure of wood. About the year 

 710, Nechtan, king of the Picts, sent messengers to Ccedfrid, the successor of Biscop, 

 to ask for information as to the correct time of celebrating Easter, then a mooted point 

 between the Anglo-Saxon and Scottish churches. The stones occur, then, in the land 

 of the Picts, whoever they were. They are probably the work of their hands ; and it 

 is not a violent conjecture to suppose that they mark the period of transition from 

 heathenism to Christianity. If we regard these sculptures as the earliest works of art, 

 and the expression of the ideas of the early inhabitants of Scotland, they must be 

 regarded with great interest. But increased research and more rigid classification 

 may yet draw new and unexpected deductions from them. One great desideratum 

 would be, to have systematic diggings about these pillars, and to preserve the skulls 

 and other remains which may be found in doing so. The time for theorizing from the 

 mere shape and appearance of those monuments, such as those at Carnac in Britany, 

 and our own Stouehcnge and Avebury, is quite gone by, and wherever the pick-axe has 

 been used, as it is now in the course of being done in Britany, the result presents us 

 with some, and the first reliable data for any conclusion on the subject. If this agent 

 is judiciously applied to the various classes of our Scottish antiquities which yet remain 

 to us, we may hope to obtain some sure footing for investigating the history of the 

 early inhabitants of our country. 



Rapid Communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, via British North 

 America. By Major Synge, F.R.G.S. 



STATISTICAL SCIENCE. 



Introductory Address by Colonel Sykes, M.P., F.R.S., 

 President of the Section. 



The President opened the meeting in a brief address. lie said he had been a 

 member of this Section from its commencement, and had been a pretty constant 

 attender — in fact, was one of its founders. The rules of the Section are rigid. No 

 paper is allowed to go before the public that has not been referred to a member of 

 Committee and approved by him, and by the Committee of the Section. The ob- 

 ject of this is to ensure the absence of points in religion and politics, always liable 

 to excite bad feeling, or likely to do so. lie had therefore little to say, as no 

 one had had the power to question the statements he might make. However, he 

 might safely give a few facts that coidd not be questioned. The object of the Sec- 

 tion was to obtain the condition of facts, expressible in numbers chiefly. Then it 

 rests with those who produce the facts, or others, to draw their deductions from 

 them. Statistics were so valuable, that there could be no safe legislation without 

 them ; but they might be turned to disastrous account, so as to become a snare, and 

 to lead to ridicule. He cautioned them to beware of drawing deductions from a 

 period of time less than seven years, and also of generalizing from local facts, even 

 when applicable to a long period. 



On the Arts of Camp Life. By Colonel Sir J. Alexander, F.R.G.S. 



On the Manufactures and Trade of Aberdeen. By G. B. Bothwell. 



He traced the history and progress of the manufactures and trade of this city 

 from a very early period." The manufactures consisted principally of coarse woollens 

 and stockings, "which were exported to Campvere and Dantzic, and so extensive 

 were these exports in the seventeenth century, that Sir Patrick Drummond, Conser- 

 vator of Holland, often remarked that " Scotland was more obliged to the town of 

 Aberdeen for returns in money for its trade, than to all the other towns in the 

 kingdom." At this period the exportation of salmon was also very great. In 

 favourable seasons upwards of 1400 barrels of 250 lbs. each have left the harbour. ■ 



The Woollen Trade is still extensively carried on, but circumstances, which it ia 



