CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 855 



There were forty-two Delegates sent by as many Corresponding 

 Societies to last year's Meeting of the Association ; there were therefore 

 thirty-six Societies unrepresented at the Conference. The Committee 

 consider that it would be to the advantage of the Societies if a greater 

 number of them were to endeavour to secure the services of representa- 

 tives who would attend the Conference and bring before them the work 

 of the Association. 



Two of last year's Delegates represented Societies from whom no 

 returns have been received, and there is no information as to how they 

 and the Secretaries of the other five Societies which have made no returns 

 performed their duties as regards bringing the work of the Association 

 before their members. 



The following analysis of the answers to the questions asked refers 

 to the sixty-eight Societies from which returns have been received, and 

 relates therefore to forty Delegates and to twenty- eight Secretaries of 

 Societies unrepresented by Delegates. 



The answers to the first three questions show the extent to which the 

 work of the Association has been brought before the notice of the Corre- 

 sponding Societies. Seven of the forty Delegates failed to make any 

 report to their Societies regarding the subjects brought before the Con- 

 ference of Delegates, but in two of these cases the covering letter and 

 report of the Conference was communicated to the Societies by their 

 Secretaries. Thirty-three of the Delegates made reports to their Societies, 

 and in twenty of these cases their reports have been, or are being, pub- 

 lished by the Societies. In the other twenty cases, including those in 

 which the Delegates failed to bring a report of the Conference before their 

 Societies, the answer to the second question is a negative . The Secretaries 

 of sixteen of the twenty-eight Societies unrepresented by Delegates at the 

 Conference brought the Report of the Conference and the covering letter 

 sent with it before their respective Societies, but to the rest of the Societies 

 it was not communicated. The net result is that only fifty-one out of 

 sixty-eight Corresponding Societies have had the work of the Association 

 brought under the notice of their members, and this was done by the 

 Delegate in thirty-three instances and in eighteen by the Secretary. 



Turning now to the answers to the fourth question : Fourteen of the 

 forty represented Societies answer in the affirmative and twenty-five in 

 the negative, while of the twenty-nine unrepresented Societies five answer 

 in the affirmative and twenty-four in the negative. Thus only twenty out 

 of the sixty-eight Corresponding Societies have, on their own showing, 

 done any work towards the investigation of the subjects proposed to them. 

 Of these twenty Societies eight answer only ' Yes,' but twelve give infor- 

 mation as to what they have done. The subjects which they have taken 

 up are the Collection of Photographs of Geological Interest by the Bristol 

 Naturalists' Society, the Cai-adoc and Severn Valley Field Club, the Croydon 

 Natural History Society, and the North Stafford Field Club ; Botanical 

 Survey of Counties by the Andersonian Naturalists' Society, the Buchan 

 Field Club, the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, and the Leeds Naturalists' 

 Club and Scientific Association ; Coast Erosion by the East Kent Scientific 

 and Natural History Society ; Ethnographical Survey by the Buchan Field 

 Club ; Erratic Blocks by the Hull Geological Society and the Liverpool 

 Geological Society ; Photographic Record of Plants by the Manchester 

 Microscopical Society. The West of Scotland Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion has been carrying on its scheme for the investigation of the local 



