4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



exist ; and thus to suggest where labour can be most usefully 

 and profitably applied to extend what is known, within the 

 limits of place and time in which each works. 



Scotland is exceedingly well defined as a natural area 

 for investigation, since even its southern frontier, by which 

 alone it is in contact with any other land-surface, is clearly 

 marked throughout most of its length by the Cheviot hills. 

 Its surface is much diversified ; and the numerous islands 

 along its west and north coasts offer problems of an interest- 

 ing and important kind in their relation to the origins of 

 fauna and flora, and to the evolution of new types by isola- 

 tion. But while these conditions appear so favourable to the 

 pursuance of a systematic investigation of the natural history 

 of the country as a whole, no organisation has been formed 

 with that aim a strange and unfavourable contrast to what 

 exists in various parts of continental Europe, often where 

 only political instead of natural limits mark out the 

 countries. Finland, Switzerland, Bavaria, and Branden- 

 burg afford examples of admirable work of the kind in 

 question. 



It is more than time that steps were taken to provide 

 for a careful and thorough investigation of the natural 

 history of Scotland as a whole, to take up work of a kind 

 that no existing society attempts to discharge, and to 

 supplement the individualism of the workers, and even of 

 the numerous societies, by the common efforts of all to the 

 same end, by means that shall make the work of each 

 known to all to whom it can be helpful. 



Such an aim can be fulfilled only by co-operation. 

 There is much need for the formation of a new society 

 whose one end should be the investigation of the natural 

 history of Scotland. That " Natural history " should be 

 interpreted in the old, wide sense, to include all that falls 

 under physiography and geology, as well as zoology and 

 botany. Anthropology should not be excluded, although, 

 for the sake of convenience, it would be represented probably 

 by physical and prehistoric aspects rather than by its 

 other sides. Geology has already been the care of the 

 Geological Survey ; the Ordnance Survey has given excellent 

 maps of the present configuration of the country ; and the 



