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To the Hon. Secretary I wish to express how much I am 
indebted to him for the assistance he has in every way given 
me, and for the admirable accounts he has written, for the 
newspapers, of our Field and Evening Meetings, and which 
have much lightened my labours; and we may congratulate 
ourselves on the efficient manner in which our Hon. Treasurer 
has attended to that very needful part of our work—the 
finance. 
As the Club has now been established forty-three years, it 
might not unnaturally be thought the area of its hunting 
ground was exhausted, that its occupation for good, sound, 
honest work was nearly over, and that there was a danger of its 
falling into more or less of a picnic gathering. It is true the 
broad lines of division of the various geological formations, and 
their sub-divisions, have long been recognised; but it is now be- 
ginning to be found that some of these divisions are not so clearly 
defined as they were once thought to be, and that there is 
often almost an imperceptable blending or merging of one into 
the other; that there is no finality in Geology, which is seen 
more and more to be a progressive science, widening and 
becoming grander in all its aspects with increased knowledge. 
The subject has become so vast as to make it necessary to divide its 
study into many parts; and hence, instead of the naturalist of 
broad general knowledge, there will inevitably spring up, 
specialists who will work in various departments, and the mere 
“all-round man” will soon be a fossil of the past. 
It will be our duty to watch this tendency of the age, not 
to follow it blindly; but at the same time to keep well up with 
the views of the recognised sober leaders of the science, and 
to follow in their steps. 
Now the tendency I have mentioned ought to give new 
vigour and life to a club like our own. Living as we do in 
a district which embraces several formations, and also the 
development of beds of a transitional character like the Down- 
ton Sandstone at May Hill—the Rheetics in our classic sections 
at Westbury and Wainlode—and the sands intermediate in 
