86 



done. Passing some time after, a small village, his horse cast a 

 shoe ; he went into the blacksmith's shop, and finding that the 

 OAvner was away he lighted the fire and shod his horse. He tlien 

 drove about ten miles and reached another village : upon passing 

 by a blacksmith's shop he thought he would have his work 

 examined to see if it Avere well done. The smith scrutinized it 

 closely, saw liow the nails were clinched and how it fitted 

 generally, then turned round to Mr. Beecher and exclaimed : 

 " Look here, mister, if you made that shoe yourself and put it 

 on, as you. say, you had better give up preaching and take to 

 smithing." 



Gentlemen, allow me to thank you for the attention you 

 have paid to my address ; let us hope that our efforts will be 

 crowned with success ; that the Clvib will go on progressing, 

 and that, assisted by scientists and scientific institutions in 

 Europe and America, from whom Ave have hitherto received 

 every encouragement possible, Ave Avill become a useful institution 

 of the Colony. 



To His Excellency, Sir Frederick Napier Broome, Avho Avas 

 kind enough to accept the position of patron to our Club, Ave 

 OAveagreat deal of encouragement, and it is to be hoped that the 

 Club Avill continue to thrive successfully under his patronage. 



His Excellency the Patron said he Avas sure they had all 

 listened Avith great interest to the address Avhich had just been 

 read, giving an account of the first year's operations of the 

 Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club. Ashe took it, the primary ob- 

 ject of such a club as this Avas to give pleasure to its members 

 by observation of animal, insect, and plant life in Trinidad. 

 Tliey did not aspire, he took it, to be a Scientific institution or 

 to render great services to the Colony. He thought it Avould be 

 a mistake if they aspired to that. All clubs of this description 

 were formed for mutual amusement, recreation and interest, and 

 they had round them a field Avhich certainly could afford most 

 l)oundless occupation and study Avith the greatest profit, interest, 

 and pleasure to all their members. If he AA-^ould venture (for he 

 Avas a totally unscientific man himself) to make any i-emark on 

 the address, it AA-as this — that he thought it Avas penetrating to 

 too high ambition and too scientific aims. Do not let them try 

 to be severely scientific, let them be amateurs, oidinary 

 colonists — citizens of the island of Trinidad — interchanging 

 their ideas, observing Avith all the aids they could the man- 

 fold life about them, interesting themselves in the AVvHiderful 

 phenomena and processes of nature, aiul feeling that the aims 

 and objects of. their existence as a club Avere fulfilled in the 

 pleasure that they themselves derived from this glorious field of 

 nature about them. He Avas sure there Avere fcAv spots on 



