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AyXITERSAEY ADDRESS 



a succession of Meteorological Observations kept in this county. 

 Geology has had — partly, I imagine, owing to the geological pro- 

 clivities of youT Secretary, and possibly of your President — a very 

 fair amount of attention shown it during the past year. We 

 have had an admirable lecture on "The Eocenes of England and 

 their Extension in Hertfordshire," by Mr. Lobley j we have had 

 a notice of the ''Hertfordshire Ordnance Bench Marks," by Mr. 

 John Hopkinson; an account of some "Boulders near Buntingford," 

 by Mr. E. P. Greg ; and, what is of more immediate interest to 

 the inhabitants of this part o-f the county, a paper on "The Geology 

 and Water Supply of the JS'eighbourhood of Watford," by the Eev. 

 James C. Clutterbuck. I have also communicated a short paper on 

 "The Hertfordshire Bourne," and "Notes on Earth Pyramids in 

 the Neighbourhood of Botzen in the Tyrol." In addition to all 

 this, you have liad two excellent lectures " On the Polarisation of 

 Light," from Mr. Harford; notes on "Microscopical Moimting," 

 by Mr. Cottam ; and hints for a new field naturalist's micro- 

 scope, by Lieutenant Croft. I think that this list shows that we 

 have been extending our operations over a very considerable field, 

 and I hope with satisfactory results. 



In the Address which I had the honour of delivering last year, I 

 pointed out the various branches of inquiry which seemed to me to 

 come within the field of such a society as this ; and it appears to 

 me that I did enough on that occasion in the way of indicating 

 the methods which might be adopted, and the subjects which re- 

 quired investigation ; for we shall all agree that there is still a 

 great deal to be done by the Society before all the fields then 

 pointed out may be considered to have been fully explored. I 

 therefore thought that on this occasion it was not worth while to 

 give an address in any way similar in character to that which I gave 

 last year. It next occurred to me whether it would be possible 

 to give some account of the advances made last year in Natural 

 History generally ; but although we have had an Arctic Expedition, 

 and other Expeditions undertaken wdtli the view of bringing within 

 our knowledge a greater amount of the Natural History of various 

 parts of the world than has been before obtained, yet, to make an 

 address adapted for a society of this kind would have reiiuircd 

 considerable more time, and perhaps ability, than I was able to 

 bestow upon it. I then considered whether it Avas possible that 

 any of the recent works on Natural History that have issued from 

 the press would afford me material on which to speak to you. It 

 crossed my mind whether the works of Mr. Darwin on Climbing 

 Plants, and on Cross-fertilisation, or any ether of his admirable 



