ANNUAL ADDRESS, MDCCCLXXI, 13 



Report of the Committee, by detailing the work done 

 in excursions and meetings, cuts away this basis from 

 under me so far as the narration of events and of particular 

 discoveries is concerned. Nevertheless, I consider some 

 scope is left for a general survey of the operations of the 

 club in the past and of those that may be undertaken in 

 the future. Some such general remarks I now propose to 

 make, and after ending them, I shall attempt a short 

 discourse on a special question in natural history science, 

 which I trust will not be without interest to you all. 



I will begin by putting a question, viz. : Is this club 

 doing all it can towards fulfilling the purposes contemplated 

 by its formation ? Or, to put it in another shape, are 

 there no forms of improvement practicable in the consti- 

 tution and modes of action of the club ? As an individual 

 I must confess to the conviction that there is room for 

 considerable improvement, and that, as an association for 

 promoting natural history study, we are not doing all that 

 can be accomplished by us for that end. Of the two 

 classes of the club's operations I think the winter evening 

 meetings to be the more successful and useful. The 

 meetings have been well attended, and the gathering 

 together of so many people with the definite object of 

 bringing under their notice natural history facts and 

 theories by means of papers, discussions, and specimens, 

 cannot fail to be of advantage in kindling amongst some 

 an interest in one or other department of natural history, 

 or otherwise in some questions of archasology. 



Such gatherings I hold to have contributed more to the 

 advancement of the objects contemplated by the club than 

 have the field excursions themselves, although these latter, 

 theoretically at least, constitute its primary purpose, and 



