13 



books can make him, is to go abroad and limit the woods and 

 fiekls and ditches within a walk from his house. What an 

 advantage it is to such a man to have the animals and plants, the 

 fossils and minerals, of the country around all brought together as 

 much as jiossible in a public Museum, to which he can have free 

 access, as well for the purpose of ascertaining what the neighbour- 

 hood produces, as for that of comparing the specimens he obtains 

 with those preserved there. A man is seldom long a naturalist 

 before lie becomes a collector, and nothing helps him more in the 

 naming and arranging of his own specimens than having a Avell- 

 arranged collection at hand to consult ; tlie same is also a great 

 stimulus to liim to endeavour to find something Avhich is not in it, 

 and which therefore may l)e supposed new. 



But apart from the assistance thus rendered to local naturalists, 

 is not a local collection just what strangers would expect to find 

 in a provincial Museum 'I That is to say, Avhatever else the 

 Museum might contain, would they not at least expect to see in it 

 as complete an assemblage of the animal, vegetable, arid mineral 

 productions of the neighbourhood as could possibly be formed ? 

 Such undoubtedly ought to be found there. And if every provin- 

 cial Museum Avere to make this its first and leading object, — to 

 obtain well-preserved specimens of all the species and varieties of 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, shells, insects, plants, &c., found 

 within a certain distance of the town in which it is placed, — we 

 should soon have, not only the very best materials for a complete 

 Natural History of Great Britain, but, what is of further value, 

 ■correct data for marking out the respective limits of distribution 

 of our native animals and plants, a subject to which so much 

 attention is now being paid. I need hardly add how greatly the 

 Natural History Field Clubs, so numerous throughout the kingdom 

 in these days, have it in their power to contribute to this end, — 

 or rather how manifestly they seem called upon to do so, — the 

 very title by which they are designated indicating the professed 

 purpose for which they are associated. 



