Ixxxvi. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



are able to see the Pleiades rise before the light of the sun hides 

 them, and then commence their work of clearing the forest, the 

 dry season being necessary for this undertaking. Similar points 

 in connection with Stonehenge and other megalithic remains 

 have been lately much elucidated by the- investigations of Sir 

 Norman Lockyer. 



GENERAL. 



Owing to the difficulties of classification, which will always 

 remain a fertile source of discussion in all branches of Natural 

 History, and from which even an address like the present is not 

 free, I feel the necessity for a general or miscellaneous section. 

 I should like, in the first place, to quote a few words from the 

 address of the President of the British Association in South 

 Africa for the benefit of those cynics amongst us who speak of 

 our Club as if its chief object in life was the arrangement of 

 large picnics. He says : " The hospitality which you are offering 

 us is so lavish, and the journeys which you have organised are so 

 extensive, that the cynical observer might be tempted to describe 

 our meetings as the largest picnic on record. Although we 

 intend to enjoy our picnic with all our hearts, yet I should like 

 to tell the cynic, if he is here, that perhaps the most important 

 object of these conferences is the opportunity they afford for 

 personal intercourse between men of like minds who live at the 

 remotest corners of the earth." All that I need do in applying 

 these words to ourselves is to change the last word into " County 

 of Dorset." If the cynic can propose any practicable plan for 

 our meetings which will do more to spread a general interest in 

 the subjects comprised in our title, I shall be only too glad to 

 listen to what he has to say. 



Our country is beginning to realise, in great measure through 

 the example of other countries, notably Japan, that scientific 

 knowledge is not merely an interesting amusement, but an 

 important agent in the commercial and general welfare. This 

 idea it is the endeavour of the British Science Guild, which was 



