38 Harker : Petrology in Yorkshire. 



through the medium of the Transactions have taken a de- 

 servedl}^ high place among permanent records ; and this 

 important branch of the work could be considerably extended, 

 were the list of members large enough to supply the requisite 

 funds. Waiving this financial question, the past and present 

 of the Union give, if we will, legitimate cause for complacency, 

 or may afford us, in graver mood, strong ground of encourage- 

 ment for the future. 



It is peculiarly appropriate that we meet to-day in the 

 town where the Union first saw the light, and at the invitation 

 of the Heckmondwike Naturalists' Society, the only one which 

 has held a place on our list throughout the whole period of 

 fifty years. It is an added source of interest and gratification 

 that we have among us to-day surviving representatives of the 

 enthusiastic band of naturalists who originated the Union half 

 a century ago. Out-door tastes and healthy intellectual 

 interests are no bad ingredients in a recipe for longevity, and 

 we may hope that some who take part in this gathering to-day 

 will be here to tell the tale in ig6i. 



If we ask the reason of the success which has attended the 

 career of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, the answer, I 

 think, is not far to seek. It is merely fidehty to two or three 

 simple principles which wisely guided our founders and those 

 who, fifteen years later, reorganised the Union upon its 

 present footing. In the first place, the design common to all 

 such bodies, that of bringing together those having like interests 

 and aims, has assumed in our case a special form. We are 

 not merely a large society, but a federation of numerous 

 independent societies. These, in combining for common ends, 

 do not lose their individuality, and to loyal co-operation there 

 is added the stimulus of a wholesome rivalry. Secondly, the 

 Union has never failed to recognise that the natural province 

 of the amateur naturalist in his own county or district. Here 

 is the field nearest to his hand, and here, too, may his efforts- 

 most certainly win a return in the form of contributions of 

 real value to the common stock of knowledge. The Yorkshire 

 naturalist at least, with so wide and diversified a territory for 

 his birthright, may well rest content with this sphere of action. 

 Again, the Union, from the first, has taken its work seriously. 

 In familiar phrase, it has always meant business, and the 

 holiday element in the field excursions has been kept in due 

 subordination. Lastly, there is the actual machinery of the 

 work, in particular the division into various sections, each 

 working within its own lines, sometimes working together on 

 the border-lines, and constantly reminded that, despite this 

 necessary partition of practical energies. Nature is still a 

 whole, and the study of Nature is, in a real sense, not many 

 sciences, but one. To these advantages — an elastic constitu- 



Naturalist, 



