MAP INDEX OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS. 123
" From communications received relating to the destruction of earth-works
and other historic and prehistoric remains, this conference is rendered sensible of
the necessity for the systematic indexing of important anthropological remains,
county by county, with a view to their preservation. It therefore commends the
collection of material to Local Societies, and expresses the hope that steps may be
taken to co-ordinate the various elements involved, and to arrange for the publi-
cation of the work."
Subsequently in view of Mr. Coffey's and Mr. Read's remarks
on the vandalism on Dartmoor, it was resolved to refer the
following to the General Council of the Association :—
" That the Council be requested to impress upon his Majesty's Government the
desirability of appointing an Inspector of Ancient Monuments under the Ancient
Monuments Act in the place of the late Lieut.-General Pitt-Rivers.
" That the Council be requested to call the attention of his Majesty's Govern-
ment to the destruction of Ancient Monuments, especially on Dartmoor, which
is authorised under the terms of the Highway Act, 5 & 6 Wm. IV., c. 50, the
provisions of which are unrepealed by later Acts; and to urge the repeal of this,
section of the Act."
"A PLEA FOR AN ORDNANCE MAP INDEX
OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS."
AT the Conference of Local Scientific Societies (British
Association Meeting), Belfast, a paper having the above
title, was read. It is from the pen of Mr. Charles H. Read,
F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of British and Mediaeval
Antiquities at the British Museum. Similar arguments to those
advanced by Mr. Read have been put forward from time to time,
notably by Prof. Meldola in his Presidential Address, 1883
(Trans. E.F.C. iii., 62), repeated in an expanded form at the
Southport meeting of the British Association in the same
year (Trans. E.F.C. iv., 116). And, subsequently, Mr. Read
himself gave an address to the Essex Field Club at the meeting
in January, 1902, on the subject of "Local Archaeological
Investigation" (summarised in the Essex Naturalist, vol. xii.,
pp. 252-3). We now propose to supplement these remarks by
extracts from the Belfast paper, Mr. Read's official position, as
the representative of British Archaeology, giving a value and
force to his pleas beyond anything that can be said by laymen.
After alluding to the attention lately bestowed upon the
preservation of Stonehenge, Mr. Read continued:—
" It is not of Stonehenge that I wish to plead, but rather for its humbler
brethren whom the breath of fame has for the most part passed over. I plead