197
THE MANCHESTER MEETING OF THE
BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
By RAPHAEL MELDOLA, F.R.S., etc., Delegate from the Essex Field Club, and Secre-
tary to the Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies of the British Association.
Pending the publication of my complete report of the Conference
of Delegates at Manchester, it may interest some of the readers of
the Essex Naturalist to have a preliminary account of the pro-
ceedings in so far as these have any bearing upon the work of local
societies. Altogether thirty-three societies were represented at the
meeting, the Scotch societies, as well as those from the northern
and midland counties of England, being as usual well to the front.
At the first meeting of the Conference, held on Thursday, Septem-
ber 1st, the chair was taken by Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., the
Committee being further represented by Dr. Garson and myself.
The subjects discussed at the first Conference had reference to
the suggestions brought forward at the Conference at Birmingham last
year. The Committee appointed to prepare a catalogue of the pre-
historic remains of Great Britain has been carrying on its work, and
has received two reports relating to the occurrence of bronze imple-
ments in Yorkshire. The Committee has, I am glad to say, been
re-appointed, and I look upon their labours with some personal
interest, inasmuch as they are carrying out the scheme which I
advocated some years ago before the British Association, when repre-
senting the Essex Field Club at the Southport meeting in 1883.1 The
Secretary of this Committee is Mr. J. W. Davis, F.G.S., of Chevin-
edge, Halifax, who will be glad to receive assistance from any of our
members, and who will furnish details of the information required on
application.
Another subject broached last year, and which has- now assumed
a practical form, is the preservation of Stonehenge. In the spring
of 1886, during a joint meeting of the Geologists' Association and
the Hampshire Field Club, on Salisbury Plain, a resolution was
passed calling attention to the dangerous condition of the stones, and
expressing a hope that some steps would be taken to remedy this state
of affairs. This resolution was submitted to the proprietor, to General
Pitt Rivers as Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and to the Secretary
of the Corresponding Societies Committee of the British Association.
In this last capacity, I had the resolution sent through the proper
1 Trans. Essex Field Club, vol. iv. p. 116,