NATUBi^L HISTORY SOCIETY. 245 



should be instituted and systematized, and admission 

 thereto granted to all persons of respectability. The 

 society should direct its especial attention and ex- 

 ertions to the elucidation ol' the natural history of 

 the district, and members of all denominations be- 

 sought to forward their remarks respecting it. It 

 might be likewise proper for the society to propose 

 annually a competition for some prize to be awarded 

 to the best essayest on some subject connected with 

 the natural protiuctions or phenomena of our neigh- 

 bourhood, so that an illustration and investigation of 

 these may be made paramount in importance. It is 

 high time for our local products to receive that 

 attention which is so justly due to them ; it is high 

 time that those natural objects which have, and 

 others which may yet by further research be made 

 subservient to useful purposes, should be taken that 

 notice of which they deserve ; it is high time that 

 the latent talents of our townsmen should be drawn 

 forth and benefit the world ; it is high time for us to 

 rescue ourselves from the charge of neu^lecting the 

 privileges and opportunities presented to us. Daily- 

 do we see proofs of the truth of this imputation ; 

 many of the most rare and curious products of the 

 sea serve as playthings for children, or as decorations 

 for the cottages of the poor, many a desideratum to 

 the ornithologist has been nailed up without cere- 

 mony by the gamekeeper amongst his vermin, or 

 perchance may be discovered in the meagre collec- 

 tion of some country squire, or in the garret of some 

 amateur collector, many a rare plant has been col- 

 lected by the tyro in Botany, and subjected to no 

 further notice, many of the wonders of foreign climes 

 have been brought hither in ships, and after havnig 

 been gazed at and fingered by a score of fashion- 

 ables have at last been consigned to the shelves of 

 some curmudgeon-curioso, classed with antiquated 

 China bowls, and a shoe of the Hibernian giant, or 

 such like objects of his acquisitiveness. Of what 

 use is it that museums, the property of private in- 



