lii 



peated reference to catalogues, at least as to information, which 

 the arrangement itself may directly convey, even to the cursory 

 observer ; whilst the mind of the more attentive and studious will, 

 by an arrangement depending on recorded facts instead of theories, 

 be led naturally to comparisons and scrutiny highly conducive to 

 the advance of real knowledge. 



I am quite aware that the exact locality of a great many articles 

 in the Museum is unknown, but of a very large proportion it is 

 known ; whilst of much of the remainder at least the county where 

 they were discovered is recorded. And if the principle of geogra- 

 phic arrangement were once adopted with the articles whose loca- 

 lities are known, I feel confident that it would be so valued by 

 parties connected with the localities of the articles, as greatly to 

 facilitate historic inquiries, and secure other contributions. 



Indeed, it has always appeared to me to be due to parties pre- 

 senting antiquities, due to the localities, and to the persons inte- 

 rested in them, either by ownership of lands where they were found, 

 or by historic events connecting their ancestors therewith, that 

 antiquities taken therefrom should be preserved in some public 

 museum, where their safety and connexion with the locality should 

 be guaranteed. I would suggest that the publication of such a 

 resolution on the part of the Academy, with the allocation of a 

 suitable space, arranged even in counties, and a distinct published 

 record of donors^ would, if there was a spark of national pride or 

 genuine patriotism in the country, soon lead to presents and be- 

 quests from various parties. 



I will not presume — I am not sufficiently informed — to enter 

 into the vexed question of whether or not there are sufficient dis- 

 tinctive characteristics to mark the different eras when weapons and 

 utensils of stone were used, as compared with those of compounds 

 of brass, those of iron, and other metals. But I will ask, what 

 pleasure or instruction there would be in looking at interminable 

 ranges of stone hatchets (I do not know what sound authority there 

 is for designating them " Celts"), or of brazen swords, iron dirks, 

 &c, and other matters of precisely the same classes ? Whilst, on 

 the other hand, who can look at an arrangement of the articles 

 found in any one locality, — as in the several shoals of the Shannon, 

 in respect to which my friend, Colonel Jones, furnished informa- 

 tion ; or those of Toome, Portglenone, and Portna, on the Bann 

 River; and the crannogs of Ardekillan and Cloonfinlough, which 



