10 Presidential Address. 



appear in our printed Transactions. I am not conscious ol 

 having missed sucli a committee meeting during the past year ; 

 and therefore my guilt, although I know how few of our Society's 

 meetings and excursions I have attended, does not appear to me 

 so enormous. To be present on such occasions is surely more 

 of a jjleasure than a task, and it is only the awkward distance at 

 which I live from Dumfries which has prevented my attendance as 

 often as might be expected. As regards the past year, I think we 

 may chiim to have had a good season. Our ordinary member- 

 ship, numbering 268, is at high-water mark; but there is no 

 reason why this number should not be increased. In view of the 

 fact that we may expect some extra-ordinary expenditure in con- 

 nection with our jubilee, to be celebrated next year, it is very 

 desirable that our membership should be added to as far as ever 

 possible. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that some 17 per 

 cent, of our present members are in arrear of their annual sub- 

 scriptions. We have, of course, to mourn the death of several of 

 our members during the past session. By the death of Mr Robert 

 Service our Society has lost one of its keenest members, and Scot- 

 land one of her most trustworthy zoologists. The names of Dr 

 Chinnock and Mr J. Carlyle Aitken also occur to me. You have 

 this session duly received the volume of our Transactions as 

 usual, and you will shortly receive another volume. This 

 publication of two volumes during but one session has been under- 

 taken so as to avoid the delay, previously experienced, by which 

 the papers read before us were not in our hands till twelve months 

 or more after we had heard them. I am sure this plan will be 

 approved, and I trust that in the future the publications of our 

 Transactions will be kept more up to date than in the past. You 

 will notice when this, the 23rd volume N.S. of our Transactions, 

 comes to your hands that nearly all the papers have a local bear- 

 ing. In a Society such as curs this is most desirable. The range 

 of subjects covered in the 300 odd pages is satisfactorily diversi- 

 fied, but I should have been glad to have been able to see more 

 attention paid to photography; and some of our members will 

 regret that so little has been done during the past season in 

 philately. As regards our finances, I am glad to be able to 

 announce a credit balance of £7 2s 9d. I may here mention that 

 the sum of £170, which it was remitted to a sub-committee last 

 year to invest, has been placed in heritable security at 3| per 



