Ivi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May igOIj 



discoveries, whicli were described in our Journal in 1872, he bore 

 the name of Lane-Fox ; but, on inheriting the Rivers estates at the 

 death of the sixth Lord Rivers, in 1880, he was compelled ^to 

 assume the name and arms of Pitt-Rivers, in accordance with the 

 will of his great-uncle, the second Baron. 



Born in 1827, the son of Mr. W. A. Lane-Fox, of Hope Hall,. 

 General Pitt-Rivers was educated at Sandhurst, and entered the 

 Army in 1845. During the Crimean War he saw much active 

 service. As a young man he became a great collector of weapons^ 

 and implements, and ultimately formed an ethnological collection 

 of unrivalled interest. This collection he arranged on scientific 

 principles, so as to illustrate the gradual development of form and 

 ornament. After publicly exhibiting the collection for some years 

 in London, under the auspices of the Department of Science & 

 Art, he presented it to the University of Oxford, where a special 

 building was erected for its reception. Tn 1886 General Pitt- 

 Rivers received from Oxford the degree of D.C.L. 



It was during his residence at Kensington, some thirty years 

 ago, that Pitt-Rivers, keeping a careful record of excavations for 

 buildings in his neighbourhood, was led to his interesting discoveries 

 in the Thames gravels. It is noticeable, too, that when visiting- 

 Egypt in 1881, he discovered worked objects in chert, embedded 

 in the indurated gravel of the Nile Yalley, on the site of ancient 

 Egyptian tombs at Koorneh, near Thebes. 



General Pitt-Rivers was an indefatigable explorer of prehistoric 

 remains, having received his introduction to barrow-digging on the 

 Yorkshire Wolds, under Canon Greenwell. When he succeeded to 

 the Rivers estates, he devoted his attention to the exploration of 

 his own property, and his researches are described in four magni- 

 ficent quarto volumes, under the title of * Excavations in Cranborne 

 Chase.' These volumes were privately printed, and generously 

 presented to archaeological friends and public libraries General 

 Pitt-Rivers imported into his archaeological explorations, the 

 scientific methods of the geologist. He observed and recorded the 

 exact position of every object which was unearthed, taking rigid 

 care to avoid the commingling of relics from difl^erent layers. ISo- 

 object, however small or seemingly unimportant, was neglected. 

 Before commencing work, he carefuUy contoured the ground, so that 

 accurate sections could be drawn ; and at the close of his investiga- 

 tion, he restored the surface to its original form. At the bottom of 

 most of his excavations he deposited a copper medal, designed by 



