The truth is that science does not run fast enough for the requirements 

 of its modern machinery. The draught upon address-matter exceeds the supply 

 of the material even from nature's fertile storeroom. The footsteps of patient 

 study and research seem never so slow as when the eye is cast over the space of 

 a single year. It is true that there is, pervading almost every province of intel- 

 lectual exertion, much of that "raw haste" said to be "half-sister to delay." 

 Yet, when we look at the course of discovery that we can each remember, and at 

 the immense accession to our knowledge that has been made step by step, some- 

 times a little faster than at others, hut always slowly in the eyes of those who 

 look for great results, we shall find no cause for regret if the record of a single 

 year may seem but small in compass. 



It is one advantage of modern science, as evidenced in societies like our 

 own, and this especially ax)plies to Geology, that whatever step is made, is sure, 

 because it is subjected at once to a field of publicity and scrutiny which is 

 itself daily widening ; and whilst our visit to each new locality imparts fresh 

 knowledge to ourselves, it leaves behind, upon the spot, stimulating incidents 

 and memories which rouse dormant or diffident minds into activity ; and many 

 a healthy local influence is found to begin its career upon the spot we have 

 appeared in, long after our visitis over. 



It cannot be said that the past year was an inactive one on the part of our 

 Club. We began it on the breezy summit of the Herefordshire Beacon, on a 

 day which though opening unpromisingly on the part of the weather, attracted 

 a fair attendance of members during a walk stretching across the most con- 

 spicuous line of country that we can call ours, and one not easily forgotten.* 

 Our next Field day took us right across from the N.B. to the extreme West of 

 our territory ; indeed, across the Border, into the neighbouring Principality ; 

 and I should think the Well-house of Llandrindod has seldom witnessed so 

 large an influx of visitors bringing so little gout, and taking away so little of 

 its waters. 



That the subsequent Pic-nic to the Waterfall of Craig-y-pwl-ddu was a 

 success, I know, but with the regiet of having been prevented from being present 

 at that pleasant assemblage. The fixture at Clun to meet the members of the 

 Caradoc Field-club, and the British Archaeological Association at Ludlow, 

 afforded a day of very great interest, again somewhat interrupted by the 

 weather, and involving a walk of rather more than usual length and fatigue. 

 Yet I confess to have scarcely satisfied my curiosity (in spite of the archfeologists) 

 on the subject of the gigantic diggings of the Bury Ditches ; and I should like 

 to see some more exact investigation of their origin. 



Our last visit was where all visitations should terminate, at home ; and 

 in the Woolhope Valley of elevation we certainly have a Home with which the 



* The remembrance of Colwall admonishes us that we must not borrow etymology 

 from Domesday-book. 



