Io6 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION. 



it. The weather we have to risk, and when the elements 

 are propitious, and with us they have been much more often 

 so than not, what can be more enjoyable than joining- a 

 party of real naturalists bent on unravelling the marvellous 

 wonders contained in the woodlands, heaths, commons, ponds, 

 streams, etc., around them ? It will be noted that my 

 allusion is to real naturalists, and that because I have in my 

 mind, what I fear too often constitute the majority of our 

 field meeting- parties — those who make the excursions so far 

 as they are concerned, merely pleasurable jauntings and 

 cheerful picnics in the country. Do not suppose that I wish 

 in the least to do away with pleasure and cheerfulness from 

 our out-door gathering's, but I do think we ought to combine 

 those g-ood qualities with a share of real observation and 

 interpretation of the works of Nature : and that as naturalists 

 we should g-o into the fields and woods under another 

 character than that of mere excursionists. One great value 

 of field meeting's is, I think, the much better opportunities 

 they afford for friendly intercourse among members, than is 

 afforded by an ordinary indoor meeting- ; the restraint of the 

 meeting room being- thrown off, there is a freedom in the 

 open country which inspires in us fresh energy and interest 

 in the objects around us. Who can measure the friendships 

 thus eng-endered ? But here I must say that I do not think 

 that our members attend the excursions in anything like the 

 numbers they mig-ht and ought. Our secretaries will tell you 

 that they have on the books 2637 names of members and 

 associates, and yet out of that number it is rarely we g-et an 

 attendance of 100. Many of our members, probably the 

 majority, are working- men, and I know of course that the 

 expense of g-etting- to districts so remote as where many of 

 the meetings are held, together with the incidental expenses 

 entailed through the necessary refreshments, etc., form a 

 serious obstacle to some : but the advantages of g-etting- on 

 new grounds, where the fauna and flora are often so totally 

 different to what we are accustomed in our own districts, 

 together with the facilities for making those friendships I 

 have already alluded to with fellow workers in other districts, 

 often much better informed than we, in our own particular 

 branches of study, and whom we should otherwise probably 

 never have met ; these advantages I say, seem to me so 

 valuable, I wonder that not more of our members avail them- 

 selves of them, especially now that our railway companies 

 afford us in reduced fares such facilities for doing it. I can 

 truly say that some of my own closest friendships have been 

 made through these meeting-s, and the mutual benefit arising- 

 out of them has been incalculable. Another result of these field 

 meetings is the breaking- down of class distinctions among- its 

 members. As the only Union of the kind in our large county, 

 it naturally includes members of every position in the social 

 scale, and I venture to say that each rank is distinctly the better 



