CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 859 



Local Societies are especially noted for their wide-reaching aims and the all- 

 embracing list of subjects which they pursue, not less than for the steady, 

 persevering persistence with which they will follow up lines of inquiry 

 often as tedious as they are important. Again, local facilities or indivi- 

 dual genius often place one Society or other on some bias or enabled it to do 

 brilliant work in some one direction. The force of such example is never 

 lost upon tlie other Societies, who may extend and even amplify the results 

 thus obtained. 



Tn the fourth place the Conference has the power, too little used, to 

 ask for grants, and hence to back those of the Sections. This should have 

 the effect of helping on those researches which have a local bearing. 



In the last place the Association itself profits in receiving each year 

 delegates from all over the country, being thus aided in maintaining the 

 cosmopolitanism which is one of its leading characteristics. 



On looking through the proceedings of the Confei^ence since its 

 beginning I have been struck by the appositeness and importance of the 

 subjects brought before its consideration. I know that you will not all 

 agree with me on this point, but my distinct impression is that the dis- 

 tinguished men who have served as your secretaries have brought much 

 skill and judgment to the task of selection. An improvement might be 

 suggested, all the more readily as it rests in your own hands. I should 

 like to see each year at least one delegate bring up some topic which has 

 been treated with conspicuous success by his own Society — not merely 

 a few casual words dropped into a discussion, but a considered paper 

 dealing with the technique of an investigation, its difficulties and pit- 

 falls, and some of the conclusions to which it is leading. Suggestions, 

 whether from the inside or outside, as to a desirable piece of work which 

 might be carried out are usually barren unless somebody has actually 

 made the experiment and can give hints, warnings, advice, and sugges- 

 tions for improvement. 



It is a good divine that follows his own teaching, and I propose to 

 endeavour to qualify, for the first and last time, in this capacity by 

 following my own advice. I am here as a delegate for two federated 

 Societies, as an old sectional recorder and member of certain committees, 

 and as a former member of the Geological Survey, and still interested 

 in the promotion of geological research. In each capacity I have a word 

 or two to say, some of which may be not altogether devoid of use. 



The Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club publishes a ' Record of 

 Bare Facts,' a county record of weather, plants, animals, rocks, and 

 fossils, so carefully edited that practically nothing but well- verified 

 matters of fact creep in. Such a modest and useful publication is sure to 

 be a valuable work of reference wherever started. But local publication 

 should by no means stop here. The labourer is worthy of his hire and 

 has a right to draw his deductions from the facts that he patiently 

 harvests ; but it is not a bad thing to separate, as we do, the fact from 

 the inference. 



Many of our older publications are, hoAvever, almost unobtainable, 

 even the most valuable of them, and this should, if possible, be remedied by 

 Local Societies. No source of scientific information is more difficult to 

 hunt through than provincial newspapers, or less satisfactory when run to 

 earth ; yet this is a favourite vehicle of local effort. May I appeal to 

 Societies to reprint the more important of their papers thus published, 

 to disti'ibute their publications very freely to the libraries and institutions 



