1885-86.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 271 



cannot shut my eyes to the fact that it is 3^011 who are thus 

 equipped who must bear in the future, as you have done in the past, 

 the burden of working the Chib so as to make it a success. It is 

 to you that those of us who have been less fortunate in our oppor- 

 tunities or training look for assistance, encouragement, and help. 

 The younger members expect you to take them by the hand, and 

 trust to your kindness to point out to them those special subjects 

 that they may study with advantage ; and no one knows better 

 than I do how well and earnestly you have been endeavouring to 

 afford this aid. Let me say to those of you wlio have abstained 

 from joining our active work, that if you desire special knowledge 

 you must not hesitate to ask questions, and ever be ready to sup- 

 ply us with information when you can. I feel sure I am asserting 

 a fact when I say there is no one in this room without some special 

 knowledge or experience that would be valued by us, if we could 

 only discover it. I suppose there is no way to find out these 

 things except by getting each member to volunteer information 

 for our meetings. Long papers with elaborate details will be 

 quite unnecessary ; the narration of daily experiences or observa- 

 tions, stated as simple facts, is all that is required. 



So much for our Winter Meetings : but need I remind you that 

 these are only auxiliaries to our actual Club work, and should be 

 used for recording the observations and discoveries that have been 

 made in the field. The name " Naturalists' Field Club " makes my 

 mind stretch in fancy from these stone walls to breezy braes with 

 wimpling burns, or to rugged mountain-sides with their wild cas- 

 cades. In our cities we live like caged birds, hedged in with the 

 anxieties, worries, and cares of the struggle for existence. Can 

 any one wonder that sometimes the tired-out machinery of our 

 nature requires to be reinvigorated by breathing the pure air of 

 heaven ; or that the aspirations of the sons of freedom rise within 

 us, and, as Scotia's children, make us seek for health upon the 

 heaths and mountains of our native land. Alas ! neglect, languor, 

 and want of determination are rajjidly performing their work ; and 

 unless we are up and doing to claim and protect our rights, we 

 will lose our privileges. From time immemorial our heaths and 

 hills have been tlie happy hunting-grounds for health for all our 

 citizens ; but for years past, gradually one part and then another of 

 our moorlands have been closed to the public, and ere long we may 

 find that nothing but the dusty roads are left to us. It is time we 

 were moving in this matter ; if we delay much longer it will be 

 too late. Fortunately Professor Bryce, a countryman of our own, 

 has become alive to the dangers of losing the Scottish mountains 

 and heaths as a sanatorium for Britain, and for some years has 

 been endeavouring to get Parliament to pass his " Scottish 

 Mountains Access Bill." He has had to fight most of the battle 



