CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 43 



earthquakes, storms, frosts, floods, &c., whicli can be collected, much good 

 ■would be done. Of course this can be done for unpublished as well as 

 for published records. 



6. Records of river and well levels. — The second half of this subject 

 has so often been brought before you by Mr. De Ranee, the Secretary of 

 the British Association Committee on Underground Water, that I need 

 merely mention it. The first part refers to a subject involved in my next 

 and last heading, and to which, therefore, I will at once proceed. 



7. Records of floods mid the placing of flood- marks. — It is very strange 

 that Englishmen (Britons I had better say, for our Irish and Scotch 

 friends are equally bad) are so nearly the worst nation in Europe for 

 looking after their rivers. I do not refer to fouling by sewage and by 

 manufactui-ing refuse, or to defective engineering — I do not know where 

 we stand in those respects — but I refer to records of river levels, to scale 

 marks on the bridges, to automatic recorders of their rise and fall, to 

 arrangements for warning the owners of low-lying property when floods 

 are probable, and to the classification, levelling, and publication in full, of 

 particulars as to old flood-level marks, and the due marking of new ones 

 when floods occur. I do not suggest that your societies should themselves 

 do all this, but that they should bring it before their Parish and County 

 Councils, and couple their request with the ofl'er of any assistance in their 

 power. Of course the suggestion will be received politely, the great cost 

 will be urged, and in many cases nothing will be done. Forgive my 

 detaining you to hear a little true story. Years ago I suggested such 

 arrangements to an influential ' man in York — nothing was done. In 

 1892 York had a flood, not so bad as some on record, but one which cost 

 the Corporation a very large sum ; they paid it, and that steed having 

 been stolen they have figuratively locked the stable door by adopting all 

 the arrangements suggested above. If the Councils do not take your 

 advice, they must remember that your attendance will be on their 

 minutes, to be referred to when their town or district sufl'ers as York did. 



The Chairman then read a letter which he had received from Mr. R. 

 Ashworth, of the Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society, who regretted 

 his inability to attend and sent some notes showing what meteorological 

 work was being done in his district. 



Mr. T. V. Holmes (Secretary) wished to make a few remarks with 

 regard to the list of papers read before the Corresponding Societies and 

 appended to the Report of the Corresponding Societies Committee. He 

 hoped that the secretaries of the various local societies, in sending in their 

 lists, would be very careful where the paper, from its title, might belong 

 to either of two sections, to group it with that section to which it had 

 most aflinity. Examination had in some cases caused a jiaper to be 

 classed Avith another section than that originally given. It was very 

 necessary also that the names of papers sent in .should not be those of 

 mere popular lectures, but of investigations of a more or less original 

 character. It had occasionally happened that when reference had to be 

 made to some paper on the list in order to ascertain its true nature it had 

 been found that the paper in question had not been sent to Burlington 

 House. No paper would in future be placed on the list published by 

 the British Association unless it could be consulted at the Office. 



The Chairman then invited discussion on the subjects mentioned in his 

 address. 



