62 
The Presidential Address. 
own paper on “Primeval Man in the Valley of the Lea” 
gratuitously. The value of this last offer will be appreciated 
when I state that the author has prepared over twenty wood- 
cuts for us. To Mr. Daw we are indebted for a woodcut of 
the beautiful neolithic flint chisel or gouge exhibited by Mr. 
N. F. Eobarts at a former meeting; Mrt Charles Thomas 
has presented us with two woodcuts representing his new 
live-trough for the microscope; and Mr. Arthur Lister has 
offered to defray the cost of the figures necessary to illustrate 
his note on Vaucheria, read at our Chigwell Meeting. 
At the Southampton Meeting of the British Association, 
held last August, I had the pleasure, together with our 
member Mr. John Spiller, of representing the Essex Field 
Club at the Conference of Delegates. As the outcome of 
this Conference a Committee was appointed, consisting of 
Mr. J. Hopkinson, Mr. H. G. Fordham, and myself, for 
making arrangements for the next Conference, to be held 
during the Meeting of the British Association at Southport 
in 1883. Of course the subjects to be dealt with by such a 
Conference can only be of a very general nature, since it is 
impossible that the work of local societies can be regulated 
or that any special course of investigation can be dictated by 
the Conference. The number of general subjects open to all 
local societies is very limited, and Mr. Hopkinson has already 
drawn up and circulated some excellent tables for the use of 
those societies which make meteorological and phenological 
observations a part of their regular work. One other branch 
of work to be done by local societies and field clubs has 
suggested itself to me, and I shall hope to be able to make 
some remarks upon this subject at the next Conference. 
I venture to think that every local society, or at least two or 
three of the societies of each county, should undertake the 
cataloguing of the local prehistoric remains in their neigh¬ 
bourhood. I might even go so far as to suggest that the 
systematic investigation of such remains is work proper to 
all county societies; but at any rate, as a preliminary step, 
we should have a complete list of the ancient remains of each 
county, and this is a subject which might very profitably 
