144 BRITISH ASSOCIATION, &C. 



excess at all. Nor did he think there was an excess of phthisis in the western 

 towns : there might be an excess of pulmonaiy consumption ; but the same 

 fallacy pervaded the returns of the Registrar- General in this respect that he 

 had noticed in the case of Cornwall. 



INTEENATIONAIi CONGEESS OF PRiE-HISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY. 



Flint Flakes and Mammalian Remains. 



Mn. H. S. Ellis brought before the notice of Congress his discovery of 

 flint flakes and mammalian remains in the submerged forest at Barnstaple. 

 He pointed out on a diagram the position of the spot where he made the 

 discovery. The sea had been gradually encroaching and washing inland, 

 thus extending the beach. About 300 yards from the pebble beach, on some 

 patches of peat which were only occasionally exposed to view, he found a 

 few flints ; and at the depth of six to eighteen inches, he found thousands 

 of like character, comprising flint flakes, flint cores, bones, teeth, oyster 

 shells, &c., covering a space of several square yards. When a very severe 

 storm takes place, the trunks of large trees are observed underneath the sur- 

 face. — Rev. R. Kiewan bore testimony to the above statement, and said that 

 he discovered the stakes shewn on the diagram. They were of oak, and he 

 followed them to about three feet below the surface, and then desisted, in 

 consequence of not being used to the labour. He found a layer of sand 

 three or four inches thick ; then a layer of peat about twelve inches thick, 

 and containing particles of shell, but very few bones ; and under that was a 

 deposit of blue mud. — Me. Busk said that amongst the specimens were bones 

 of the ox, stag, and reindeer. Most of them were broken, and he supposed 

 it was for the marrow. — Me. Evans remarked that of the Kjcikken Modden in 

 Denmark, in which similar remains were found, and which were formed by 

 the inhabitants piling up the refuse of their habitations, there was no evi- 

 dence to show what was their age, but there was no doubt that they belonged 

 to a comparatively early period. Some of those kitchen heaps were found in 

 England, on ground which at the present time was between high- and low- water 

 mark, and did not seem to have been well adapted for human habitations ; 

 but he accounted for this by supposing that there had been a subsidence of 

 the land. The Danish ones, though as a rule found in close proximity to 

 the sea, were placed on slight eminences. — Mr. A. Waddington observed 

 that many of the implements exhibited on the table were similar to those at 

 present in use among the American Indians and in Africa. — Mr. Ellis said 

 it was well known in the North of Devon that the sea was encroaching, and 

 it was only by adojDting artificial means that the inhabitants could ever hop^ 

 to save the land, which was being rapidly washed away. 



Ogham Monuments, 



Colonel Lane Fox read a Paper by Mr. R. R. Brash, on the Ogham 

 Monuments of the Gaedhal (Gael). The Paper gave a lengthy description 



