ii Journal of Proceedings.
Provincial Natural History Societies sent copies of their Transactions in
exchange with the Club.
The following were elected members of the Club:—Messrs. C. Black,
R. R. Hutchinson, B. Pratt, J. L. Reid, and A. H. Tozer.
The President informed the Meeting that, at the Council held that
evening, the following gentlemen had been chosen as a Sub-committee to
conduct the exploration of the Ancient Camps in Epping Forest:—
The Officers, ex officio ; Mr. D'Oyley (Hon. Surveyor), Mr. Thomas, Mr.
Fisher Unwin, Mr. Robarts, and Rev. W. Linton Wilson. The Council
requested the names of other members to act on the Committee; and
Messrs. H. A. Cole, James English, and F. H. Varley were nominated so
to aet.
The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of the Rev. F. A. Walker, some'
specimens of "Petrified Oak" from the stone-quarries, Isle of Portland,
and some large pieces of calcareous incrustations, or slabs of stalagmite,
caused by the percolation of water over the surface of limestone rocks,
and called by the guides "congealed water"; also from the Isle of
Portland.
Professor Boulger remarked the idea that these slabs of stalagmite were
really composed of hardened water was gravely held in many places. In
the South of Ireland he had once pointed out some slabs to a limestone-
burner, asking him why he did not put them into his kiln, as they would
make excellent lime. From the man's replies it was evident he feared
that the congealed water would put his fires out! (Laughter.)
Sir J. Clarke Jervoise sent up a plan of some earth-works in the Holt
Wood, near Horndean, Hants, which he thought would be interesting in
connection with the Forest Camps explorations. He also sent some
pieces of flint, concerning which he wrote as follows :—"Near the camps
in Holt Wood is a circular earth-work with high banks and a ditch ; there
is a pond in one part, pitched with flints, and on the mound and all about
the sides of the pond the ground is strewed with reticulated 'Pot-boiler'
flints (see Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind'). I happen to have
specimens indoors, which I send; The late Mr. Albert Way gave me
credit for being the first to discover the use of these flints, which have
been heated and cooled rapidly in the operation of boiling food before
earthenware that would stand the fire was discovered. We find them in
heaps, generally near water. School-boys call them milk-stones. I once
found a flint celt lying upon a heap of 'pot-boilers.'"*
* "There is European evidence of the art of stone-boiling.....Moreover, the
quantities of stones, evidently calcined, which are found buried in our own country,
sometimes in the sites of ancient dwellings, give great probability to the inference which
has been drawn from them, that they were used in cooking. It is true that their use
may have been for baking in under-ground ovens, a practice found among races who are
stone-boilers, and others who are not. But it is actually on record that the wild Irish,
of about 1600, used to warm their milk for drinking with a stone first cast into the lire
(J. Evans, in ' Archaeologia,' vol. xli.)."—' Researches into the Early History of Mankind
and the Development of Civilization,' hy Edward B. Tylor, D.C.L, F.R.S. 3rd Ed.
(1878), p. 268.—Ed.