62 The Presidential Address.
own paper on "Primeval Man in the Valley of the Lea"
gratuitously. The value of this last offer will be appreciated
when I state that the author has prepared over twenty wood-
cuts for us. To Mr. Daw we are indebted for a woodcut of
the beautiful neolithic flint chisel or gouge exhibited by Mr.
N. F. Robarts at a former meeting; Mr. Charles Thomas
has presented us with two woodcuts representing his new
live-trough for the microscope; and Mr. Arthur Lister has
offered to defray the cost of the figures necessary to illustrate
his note on Vaucheria, read at our Chigwell Meeting.
At the Southampton Meeting of the British Association,
held last August, I had the pleasure, together with our
member Mr. John Spiller, of representing the Essex Field
Club at the Conference of Delegates. As the outcome of
this Conference a Committee was appointed, consisting of
Mr. J. Hopkinson, Mr. H. G. Fordham, and myself, for
making arrangements for the next Conference, to be held
during the Meeting of the British Association at Southport
in 1883. Of course the subjects to be dealt with by such a
Conference can only be of a very general nature, since it is
impossible that the work of local societies can be regulated
or that any special course of investigation can be dictated by
the Conference. The number of general subjects open to all
local societies is very limited, and Mr. Hopkinson has already
drawn up and circulated some excellent tables for the use of
those societies which make meteorological and phenological
observations a part of their regular work. One other branch
of work to be done by local societies and field clubs has
suggested itself to me, and I shall hope to be able to make
some remarks upon this subject at the next Conference.
1 venture to think that every local society, or at least two or
three of the societies of each county, should undertake the
cataloguing of the local prehistoric remains in their neigh-
bourhood. I might even go so far as to suggest that the
systematic investigation of such remains is work proper to
all county societies; but at airy rate, as a preliminary step,
we should have a complete list of the ancient remains of each
count}', and this is a subject which might very profitably