New Archeological Lights on the Origins of Civilization in Europe.

WHEN I was asked on behalf of the council of the British Association to occupy the responsible post of president at the meeting in this great city-the third that has taken place here-I was certainly taken by surprise; the more so as my own subject of research seemed somewhat removed from what may be described as the central interests of your body. The turn of archeology, however, I was told, had come round again on the rota of the sciences represented; nor could I be indifferent to the fact that the last pre,sidential address on this theme had been delivered by my father at the Toronto meeting of 1897. Still, it was not till after considerable hesitation that I accepted the honor. Engaged as I have been through a series of years in the work of excavation in Cretea work which involved not only the quarrying but the building up of wholly new materials and has entailed the endeavor to classify the successive phases of a long, continuous story-absorbed and fascinated by my own investigation-I am oppressed with the consciousness of having been less able to keep pace with the progress of fellow explorers in other departments or to do sufficient justice to their results. I will not dwell, indeed, on those disabilities that result to myself from present calls and the grave preoccupations of the hour, that to a greater or less extent must affect us all.