104 The President's Address.
the weather gives some prospect of our being able to find
the earth dry enough for sifting.
In attempting to unravel the mystery that surrounds
these venerable relics of human workmanship, and in
endeavouring to discover the true origin of the camp at
Ambresbury Banks, and of "Cowper's Camp," we may
perhaps be accused of trenching upon the province of our
old-established colleagues the Essex Archaeological Society,
but as this is far from our intention, it will not be here out
of place if I venture to define what to me appears to be our
position with respect to this Society, and to archaeology in
general. In point of fact the studies of the Society
mentioned commence where ours leave off—it is more
especially prehistoric archaeology with which I think we
should concern ourselves as a Natural History Club ; and
although we shall always welcome historic archaeological
contributions from our members—especially when relating
to the biographies, &c., of Essex naturalists—I am of opinion
that our Treasurer's purse should not be bled in order to
publish such papers in extenso, but that such materials
when communicated to us should be handed over by the
Council to our brother Society to be published or dealt
with as they shall think fit. Let not these remarks in any
way deter our members skilled in archaeology from giving
us the results of their labours; their contributions will add
greatly to the interest of our meetings, and their value to
the science will be the rather augmented by their being
ultimately referred to a Society which has. made these
subjects its proper study.
The only other Field Meeting upon which I feel called
to make any comment was the last of the session, held on
October 2nd, under the leadership of Dr. M. C. Cooke,
Mr. Worthington Smith, and Mr. James English. A humour-
ous account of this "Fungus foray" appeared in the Gar-
dener's Chronicle of October 9th, from the pen of one of
our conductors, and the full list of the most noteworthy
species collected appears in our "Proceedings." The meteo-
rological authorities treated us badly on that occasion; but
notwithstanding their "aqueous humours" we mustered