140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
of the Society—an idea which, flattering as it might be to my personal 
vanity, seems to me almost too absurd to mention. Is your interest in 
natural history so slight that the withdrawal of one member from a 
society like ours could be followed by so disastrous a result? I will not 
believe it. The duties of a secretary are not so heavy that any super- 
human exertions are needed to fulfil them; and surely among 70 mem- 
bers one may be found who will come forward to fillup the gap. Yet, 
lest this should not be the case, I may mention that, should it be your 
wish that I should retain my post until the conclusion of the present 
year, I have made arrangements by which I hope to be enabled to be 
present as usual at our winter meetings. This, however, is only 
provisional; I need hardly point out to you how much better it 
will be if the post be filled by one residing on the spot; the matter is 
for you to decide. I have felt that it is advisable that the office of 
treasurer, which for the last three years has been united with that of 
secretary, should return to its former distinctness ; the duties of collect- 
ing subscriptions and keeping accounts are quite sufficient in themselves 
to occupy one whose time is already much engaged; and I would, there- 
fore, urge upon you the propriety of your appointing a Treasurer ; this 
will have the effect of rendering the Secretary’s duties even lighter than 
they are at present. All that you require in a Secretary is one whose 
heart is in the work, and surely it would be no difficult task to find such 
an one among us. 
T avail myself of this opportunity to thank you for the extreme kindness 
you have one and all manifested towards me during my residence among 
you. If any proof were needed, of the catholicity of natural history, 
that proof your friendliness has afforded me. Whatever differences of 
opinion on other matters may exist between us, I can say with truth 
that you have been always ready to comply with any suggestion which 
I may have had to make with reference to the well-being or advance- 
ment of the society, and once more I heartily and sincerely thank you. 
Perhaps you will pardon me for once more urging upon you the 
necessity of more real work among us. Not that we do not number 
among our members a proportion, it may be a fair proportion, of those 
who really devote part of their time to actual study of natural objects— 
we have one or two botanists who examine in the herbarium as well as 
in the field, our British plants—and others who employ the talents given 
them in transferring to paper the fleeting tints and delicate forms of our 
wild flowers, and learn while so doing, many interesting facts connected 
with them. Ornithologists, too, are fairly represented, and Mr. Sharpe 
ee 
