COKRESFONDLNG SOCIETIES. 21 



majority of the Secretaries of the Corresponding Societies did not fill up 

 and return them until they were written to a second time. Again, oat 

 of more than sixty Societies, only forty-two thought it worth while to 

 nominate delegates, though it could hardly be a difficult matter to find 

 members able and willing to serve. It was a very great advantage to 

 the workers in the various local Societies to have the titles of their papers 

 printed and published in the Annual Reports of the British Association. 

 The Transactions of the various Corresponding Societies were bound and 

 kept available for reference at present in the Office of the Association at 

 Burlington House, whereas papers read before other local Societies 

 were not unlikely to remain unknown or unconsalted. It was most 

 desirable that the British Association should be brought into closer 

 communication with the Societies. It had been usual hitherto fur repre- 

 sentatives from the different Sections to attend the Conferences and to 

 mention anything that had been done, such as the appointment of a 

 committee for some special purpose, in which the co-operation of the 

 Corresponding Societies would be advantageous. It would be a good 

 thing that there should be better means of communication between the 

 Corresponding Societies and the Secretaries of the various committees 

 appointed by the British Association. A good example of a committee 

 especially needing the assistance of the Corresponding Societies was that 

 nominated by Section H to make an Ethnographical Survey of the United 

 Kingdom. The first Report of this committee had just been presented to 

 the delegates, and Mr. Brabrook, the Secretary, would shortly call their 

 attention to it. At their last meeting at Edinburgh some delegates had 

 asked whether the Council of the Association might not be able to obtain 

 greater facilities from the railway companies for members travelling to 

 and from these meetings. The Council consequently appointed a com- 

 mittee, of which Sir Frederick Bramwell was an active member, to see 

 what could be done, The result, however, could not be deemed satis- 

 factoiy. The Clearing House authorities considered that the ordinary 

 tourists' tickets met the requirements of the case, and reminded them 

 that return tickets were issued to members at a single fare for distances 

 not exceeding fifty miles from the place of meeting. The local authorities 

 had placed the room in which they then were at the disposal of the 

 delegates, and in it they might meet to discuss matters at any time. 



The Secretary read a letter from Sir Douglas Galton, expressing his 

 regret at being unable to attend the Conference. 



The Chairman proposed to take the Report which was in their hands 

 as read. He would be glad to hear any remarks from delegates on the 

 work done during the past year. 



Section A. 



Meteorological PhotograpJiy . — Mr. Symons was much indebted to the 

 delegates for the number of photographs of clouds sent in to the Com- 

 mittee up to the pi'esent time. He did not press for more, as the 

 Committee appointed by the British Association for the ' Elucidation of 

 Meteorological Phenomena by the Application of Photography ' had the 

 very considerable collection of 467 to deal with. They proposed to 

 select the typical ones, reduce them to a uniform scale, and print perhaps 

 a hundred copies of them. They hoped to publish the atlas during the 



