476 Reports and Proceedings — 



formerly worked, are likewise described, including the gun-flint 

 manufacture once carried on at Beer Head in Devonshire. The 

 various tools employed are explained and figured, and the methods 

 of digging the flint, and of drying, quartering, flaking, and knapping 

 it are similarly illustrated. And in this part of the subject the 

 author acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. W. J. Southwell, a 

 practical knapper, in whose workshop he learnt the trade, and wrote 

 many of his notes. Each form of gun-flint, from that of the musket 

 to the pocket pistol, is engraved, and full descriptions are given of a 

 set of specimens deposited in the Museum at Jermyn Street. 



The author observes that from Palaeolithic times to the present 

 day the vicinity of Brandon has been one of the great emporia for 

 flint, and he briefly sums up his conclusions that the early palaeo- 

 lithic implements found in the " Brandon Beds " are older than the 

 Chalky Boulder Clay. The present flint-knappers at Brandon he 

 regards as the direct descendants of the old workers in stone who 

 dug the ancient flint-pits at Grime's Graves, which have been so 

 well described by Canon Greenwell. 



V. — Journal op the Koyal Microscopical Society. Edited by 

 Frank Crisp, LL.B., B.A., F.L.S., etc. Yol. II. No. 2, April; 

 No. 3, Extra Number, May, 1879. 8vo. (Williams & Norgate, 

 London.) 



THERE are so many points in the natural history of plants and 

 animals, and in the nature of rocks, that the microscope assists 

 the geologist in determining, and so many microscopists work ardently 

 at the elucidation of these matters, that we cannot take up any part 

 or volume of the Proceedings of the several Microscopical Societies now 

 flourishing at home or abroad without meeting with some, and often 

 with important, additions to our knowledge. This is the case with the 

 Journal before us. The industrious accumulation of notes and memo- 

 randa from British and foreign works adds much to the value of this 

 work ; and, with the Bibliography, these are now arranged on a classi- 

 fied plan, referring (1) to the histology and embryology of the Verte- 

 brata; (2) structure and natural history of the Invertebrata, according 

 to classes and orders; (3) general histology and embryology of the 

 Phanerogamia ; (4) the Cryptogamia in order; (5) Microscopy and 

 Miscellanea. 



EEPOETS JL.JSTJD PBOCEBDIUGS. 



British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Forty-ninth Meeting, Sheffield, August 20th, 1879. 

 I. — Titles of Papers Read in Section C. (Geology). 



President— Professor P. Martin Duncan, M.B. (Lond.), F.R.S., V.P.G.S. 



The President's Address. 



Ben. H. W. Crosskey, F.G.S. — Seventh Report of the Committee 

 appointed for the purpose of recording the position, height above 

 the sea, lithological characters, size, and origin of the Erratic 

 Blocks of England, Wales, and Ireland; reporting other matters 



