Proceedings of tJte Society. 5 



and fossils of our vicinity. It would now be a wise idea to have 

 these various catalogues revised, corrected and reprinted, with 

 notes, or indeed, if possible, with descriptions, and have them 

 bound together, as a contribution to science by the Society. This 

 would provide students with a guide to the study of the natural 

 history of the locality, which they could not get in any other way, 

 and which they could get now only by long years of patient col- 

 lection and study. 



The value of a Journal of a Natural History S(jciely consists 

 in its local work. In future years it will be quoted as an authority, 

 and while it is well to occasionally admit articles forei-n to the 

 locality when of e.xceptional meiit, I would question the advisabil- 

 ity of extending researches over the whole earth. Every year 

 shows some new field which is waiting to be explored, or some old 

 one which needs to be revised. And although much has been 

 done here, more remains. We have no list of fishes, of reptiles, 

 of shells, of neuroptera, diptera, hymenoptera, orthoptera, ol 

 sponges, of alga;, mosses or lichens. Our knowledge of many 

 groups of fossils is so scattered as to be almost inaccessible; and 

 though I hdve endeavored to supjjly to some extent the need, much 

 still remains. 



One of the features which has been noticed in the early volumes 

 of the Journal is the lack of an Index. The first volume con- 

 tains 194 pages, but the Index occupies less than one page, and 

 contains exactly thirty lines I In none of the other volumes up to 

 VI, does the Index occupy more than two pages, double column, 

 but VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X have full indices. It is hoped and 

 believed that the Index of the ten volumes supplied to volume X, 

 may meet a long felt want, making as it does the contents of all 

 the volumes accessible to the student. 



There are but few papers in the Journal which are not com- 

 plete, although some of them extend over many numbers. The 

 paper in the first number entitled "Contributions to Palaeontology, 

 by S. A. Miller and C. B. Dyer," was continued by a second ])art, 

 issued separately, and never appearing in the Journal. Thus 

 it is difficult of access, and is generally quoted as " M. & D. Contri. 

 to Palae., Part 2," whereas Part i is quoted from "Jour. Cin. Soc. 

 Nat. Hist., Vol. I." The article by Mr. E. O. Ulrich on "Amer- 

 ican Palieozoic Bryozoa " extended through volumes V, VI and 

 part of VII, but was never finished. Where the conclusion can be 

 found, if indeed it has ever appeared, I am not able to say. A 



