1904-1905-] The Aims of Field-Chib Excursions. 219 



X—THE AIMS OF FIELD-CLUB EXCURSIONS. 



By Mr W. C. CEAWFOED, F.E.S.E. 



{Read April 26, 1905.) 



We hear not infrequently the remark that Field- Club Excur- 

 sions are unsatisfactory, — that they do little to encourage the 

 study of local natural history, or that they might do a great 

 deal more than they do. I use the words Field- Club Excur- 

 sions for all kinds of excursions of local Natural History Societies, 

 — botanical or zoological, — shore walks or mountain climbs, 

 dredging excursions and fungus forays, here and elsewhere. 

 I do not include at present geological excursions, because 

 open-air geology has a more definite field than botany or 

 zoology. The problems of geology are, on the whole, less 

 complex and much more mechanical than the problems to 

 which living organisms give rise. Besides, we have in geology 

 great local guide-books in the 'Memoirs of the Geological 

 Survey,' from which, by taking trouble, we can understand the 

 tectonic structure of a district and the views of the best- 

 informed for the time regarding its geological history. In 

 biology it is quite different: hardly any biological surveys 

 have been made in this country — none systematically by 

 Government, as they have been made in the United States 

 under Hart, Merriam, and others. 



In the excursions about which I am to speak, I do not 

 mean to include those organised for a biological survey : such 

 a survey must be systematic and thorough, — it must be like a 

 geological survey, and can hardly be carried out without paid 

 workers, because a great deal of the work is not much more 

 than scientific book-keeping. A great deal can be done by 

 enthusiastic, unpaid men — in fact, often the best of all work 

 and the most epoch-making has been done by such investi- 

 gators. Take the biological survey of fresh-water lakes begun 

 by a single observer, Forel, thirty years ago, in the Lake of 

 Geneva. Fifteen or twenty years later systematic investiga- 

 tions were made in Plonersee, in Holstein ; in Miiggelsee, 

 near Berlin ; in the large Hungarian lake, Plattensee, and in 

 Finland ; and lately in Scotland the survey of the fresh-water 



