PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF STATEN ISLAND, 
Mare VII. No. 13. 
MARCH 8th, 1902, 
The regular meeting of the Association was 
held at the residence of Mr.Chas. P. Benedict, 
West New Brighton. In the absence of the 
president Mr. Wm. T. Davis was elected 
chairman p70 tem. 
The secretary reported that arrangements 
had been made for two public lectures at the 
Staten Island Academy: the first on Wednes.- 
day, March 19, by Mr. Cornelius Van Brunt, 
on ‘‘Wild Flowers in and about Greater 
New York,” and the second on Wednesday, 
April 9th, by Mr. E. B. Southwick, on ‘‘Our 
Insect Tenants.’’ 
The following were elected active mem- 
bers; 
Wn, F, Fox, New Brighton. 
Wm:H Mitchill, Port Richmond. 
Jas, V. Burkman, West New Brighton. 
5 H. Achilles, a6 66 ac 
Reade Benedict, Cee OGG ‘ 
H. E. Heal, Bac SOF kt: 
The secretary referred to the death, since 
the last meeting, of Mr. A. A, Yates, and 
stated that Mr. Yates had been practically 
the only person connected with our public 
school system on the Island who seemed to 
realize the importance of nature study, so 
that his death is a loss both to the community 
in general and to our Association in particu- 
lar, 
Mr. Wm. T, Davis also referred to the 
same matter and submitted the following 
memorandum, which was ordered spread up- 
on the minutes and printed inthe Proceed 
ings; 
Our late member Mr, Albertus Austin Yates, who 
died after a brief illness at his home on Carey 
Ave.,West New Brighton, on the 13th of February, 
was born in Kingston, New York, and came to 
Staten Island a numberof years ago. For some 
time he was principal of the public school on 
Andros Ave., Mariners Harbor, and later was 
supervising deputy of seven of the smaller public 
schools, having his headquarters at New Dorp. 
It was while living at Mariners Harbor that he 
became interested in nature study, and he exhibit 
ed considerable enthusiasm in the way of identify- 
ing all of the birds and treesin the vicinity of his 
home. In the winter of 1899-1900, the red cross-bill 
occured in considerable numbers about New York, 
and Mr. Yates reported that he had seen several of 
the birds on the cones of a pine tree in the Moravian 
Cemetery. Their occurrence here was not however 
recorded at the time. In October, 1898, he reported 
having found a Carolina rail, dead, inthe Clove 
Valley, and ia fact, always, on his. way from one 
school to another, he had an eye for the birds and 
the trees by the road side. 
It is said that we can judge a man by the 
questions he asks and Mr, Yates was an adroit 
questioner, and quickly enough got to the bottom 
of the subject. He was also a kindly man and was 
always ready to put himself to considerable trouble, 
if necessary, in order to serve his friends. 
Dr, Arthur Hellick suggested that some 
record should be made in regard to the de- 
struction wrought by the recent storm, and 
Tread the following 
NOTES ON THE ICE STORM OF FEB, 21ST, 
On four previous occasions since the date 
of our organization, more than twenty years 
ago, we have suffered from storms sufficiently 
severe to make them matters of record in our 
Proceedings The first was that of the great 
blizzard of March 12th-13th, 1888, the second 
and third the gales of August 24th and 29th, 
