THE FEDERATION IDEAL FOR NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 51
brickearth with scattered stones and Palaeolithic implements,
identical in character at Hitchin, Hoxne, Fisherton, and other
localities, which irresistibly suggests a mingling of wind-trans-
ported material and rain wash."
A list of the fossil remains found, and the details of the
various borings are given, but for these and other matters of
interest, the reader must consult the paper itself. At Hitchin, as
at Hoxne, Palaeolithic implements have been found only in
deposits decidedly Post-Glacial. It is pleasant to be able to
congratulate Mr. Clement Reid on this most interesting and
important investigation.
T. V. Holmes.
THE FEDERATION IDEAL FOR NATURAL
HISTORY SOCIETIES, WITH SPECIAL RE-
FERENCE TO THE EASTERN COUNTIES.
By Prof. G. S. BOULGER, F.L.S., F.G.S, (Vice-President).
[Read December 12th, 1896].
IT is unnecessary to insist before this Club that the main
raison d'etre of a provincial Natural History Society is local.
Educationally it may be concerned with Natural History in
general, but so far as any original contributions to knowledge
are concerned it should be exclusively local.
The British Association I look upon as the great peripatetic
scientific missionary society to the large provincial centres ;
but, whilst in this capacity its business is to bring "home to
Mens Businesse and Bosomes" the most recent advances of
science in general, its Committees have been largely engaged in
the systematic investigation of the natural phenomena of Britain.
Now the value of a generalisation increases with the complete-
ness with which the particulars embraced by it have been
investigated. The results of these Committees of the British
Association depend for their value, therefore, very largely on the
complete extension of their purview over the whole country.
Here it is that truly valuable contributions to science can be
made by the co-operation, not only of those publishing societies
which are at present affiliated to the British Association by