302 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



enamelled sword-pommel, a beautiful clasp of a belt, with a plate 

 of gold in the centre ; shears, bronze tweezers, bronze and bone 

 hair-pins, children's toys, a number of draughts or counters, pro- 

 bably for playing some game, beads of great variety, formed of 

 amber, amethyst, glass, porcelain, and coloured clay ; carbuncle pen- 

 dents, set in gold and silver ; a great variety of fibula?, etc. All 

 these objects are preserved in the Kent Society's Museum at 

 Maidstone. 



We are glad to be able to announce that these excavations have 

 been resumed, still under the directions of Mr. Brent, and with the 

 same success as before. The museum at Maidstone, which is open 

 to the public, is well worth a visit. A full account of last year's 

 diggings is printed in the newly published volume (the fifth) of the 

 Archceologia Cantiana, or, Transactions of the Kent Archaeological 

 Society. T. W. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 



MEETING OE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BATH. 



(Continued from our last.) 



On Monday, Sept. 19, Dr. Livingstone gave a lecture descriptive 

 of the proceedings of his last African exploration. He stated that, 

 previous to the Zambesi expedition, and the discovery of Lake 

 Ngami and the Makololo country, it was imagined that the interior 

 of Africa was composed of vast, sandy deserts, into which rivers 

 ran and were lost. But journeying across from the Indian Ocean 

 to the Atlantic, it was observed that the country was well watered, 

 that large tracts of fertile soil were covered with forests, and sup- 

 ported a considerable population ; the interior of the continent being 

 an elevated plateau, somewhat depressed in the centre, with fissures 

 at the sides, by which the rivers escaped into the sea. On the west 

 coast Dr. Livingstone found that slavery had been abolished, the 

 slave trade suppressed, and that commerce had increased from 

 £20,000, in ivory and gold dust, to between £2,000,000 and 

 £3,000,000 of exports, of which £1,000,000 was palm oil; that 

 twenty missions had been established, and schools founded in which 

 12,000 pupils were taught. On descending the Zambesi to the east 

 coast, there was found neither trade nor commerce, as foreigners 

 were debarred from entering into the country. To open up this 

 country was the main object of the Zambesi expedition. The first 

 discovery made was a navigable entrance to the river, about a 

 degree west from the Quillimane River, which has hitherto been 

 falsely represented as a navigable mouth to the Zambesi. Dr. 



