14 ANNUAL ADDRESS, MDCCCLXXI. 



the winter evening meetings are secondary and supplementary 

 to them. If you agree with me in these views, the 

 question arises, how can the excursions be made more 

 effectual ? There are now above 200 members, and at 

 some excursions nearly a hundred have been present. 

 The admission into the club may be assumed as indicative 

 on the part of those admitted of interest in one or more 

 of the branches of science the association is formed to 

 promote. But though this inference be correct, and the 

 presence of the members at excursions be taken as further 

 evidence of the same, yet the actual results of the excursions, 

 and the circumstances patent to all who have joined in 

 the excursions, show that their full and legitimate benefits 

 have not been secured. And I venture to assume that 

 few members will dissent from the opinion that the excur- 

 sions have largely assumed the character of pleasurable 

 jauntings in the country and cheerful pic-nics. Now I am 

 one of the last to wish to chase away pleasure and cheer- 

 fulness from our gatherings out of doors, but I want to 

 combine those good qualities with a larger share of real 

 observation and interpretation of the works of nature, and 

 likewise those of art included within the recognised scope 

 of the club's purposes. As professed students of nature we 

 should go forth into the fields under another character than 

 that of mere holiday excursionists. 



You will ask, How are matters to be mended? An an- 

 swer involves an enquiry how it comes to pass that the 

 scientific character of the excursions is so far lost sight of. 

 One explanation at once occurs, viz : that although mem- 

 bers have exhibited their interest in the purposes contem- 

 plated by the club, their information in natural history arid 

 archaeology is so imperfect that they cannot of themselves 

 follow out observations, or seize upon those points of 



