120 
Local Scientific Societies , and the 
tlie respective societies, as the purely local interest in the 
work would be thus greatly enhanced, and the working up of 
the whole into one compendious catalogue might possibly be 
* done later by a committee of the British Association, com¬ 
posed partly of delegates from local corresponding societies, 
and partly of other eminent authorities in prehistoric archae¬ 
ology whose assistance and advice it would be most desirable 
to secure. 
If the scheme now broached should be deemed worthy 
of consideration by your respective societies, it would be 
essential, in order to carry out the work effectively, to 
appoint from your councils and members ancient monument 
committees, whose function it would be to draw up the pro¬ 
posed catalogue, visiting the remains to be entered in all cases 
where possible, and exhausting topographical literature and 
tradition in order to avoid including any fictitious remains. 
Where no literary references are to be found, and in cases where 
doubtful structures exist, it would be all the more advisable 
to enter these in the catalogue, with appropriate remarks, so 
that systematic explorations might be made when the oppor¬ 
tunity presented itself for raising a fund for the purpose. 
Even when local histories or traditions are decided respecting 
the age of any earthwork or other ancient structure, but little 
credence can be attached to such traditions until actual inves¬ 
tigations have been made. As far as my own experience 
goes, and from information derived from other sources, it 
would appear that local tradition is the bane of the scientific 
archaeologist. There is, for instance, hardly any prehistoric 
monument in this country that has not been pronounced 
“Eoman” by some antiquarian authority, an opinion which 
not only has often been proved by excavation to be erroneous, 
but which has also had the pernicious effect of checking 
further inquiry. 
In recommending to your societies the actual investigation 
of the minor prehistoric remains of your district as a task 
well worthy of the attention of any scientific body, it is 
perhaps not wholly necessary to urge that any excavations 
attempted should be carried out with the most scrupulous 
