142 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS UNION. 



which will 'go upon all fours,' and give satisfaction to the 

 mind. Like collections of natural history objects, their use 

 to those who make them, may or may not be great, but to many 

 others they must needs be very helpful, especially to those who 

 have not time or opportunity for more than observations almost 

 limited to the district in which they may happen to live. The 

 distribution of plant and animal life, past and present, is a 

 subject of great interest, but in order to form correct conclusions 

 with regard to it, records almost innumerable are required, as is 

 evidenced bv the fact that former conclusions have to be 

 continually modified, by new discoveries in fresh localities. In 

 my experience the supposed range of several plants has had 

 to be curtailed or extended in accordance with well-ascertained 

 facts ; and what is true of plants is also true, I doubt not, with 

 regard to fossils, boulders, birds, shells, insects, and other 

 objects, which are studied by members of our Union. Some 

 species are no longer found where they used 10 occur. Others 

 are found where at one time they did not occur. In many 

 cases the reason is obvious : drainage, cultivation, cutting dowil 

 of woods, importation by accident of seeds from a distance at 

 home or abroad, often in a comparativeh' short time modify the 

 vegetable, and with it, the animal life of a district 



But there are other cases of appearance and disappearance 

 vvhich it is very difficult to account for. We know neither takes 

 place without a reason, but what the reason is, we cannot 

 always ascertain. Still, it is not so much in the collection of 

 facts, as in reasonings on, and deductions from them, that oUr 

 interest and pleasure arise, and therefore we need not be 

 discouraged, because we do not know all that is to be 

 known, but rather stimulated to proceed with our enquiries, in 

 the hope that we shall, at least increase our knowledge, and 

 satisfy ourselves as to some, at any rate, of the puzzling 

 questions we have to put to ourselves. As in other departments of 

 science, so in ours, it is not in facts alread}^ recorded, and in 

 conclusions already arrived at, that i terest is excited ahd 

 pleasure enjoyed, so much as in the accuniulation of fresh facts, 

 and the establishing^ on a firm basis, of deductions from those 

 facts. Every addition to our knowledge of natural objects 

 gives us interest and pleasure, but it is in the pursuit of further 

 knowledge that our chief enjoyment is centred. Not expecting, 

 in our present state, to understand fully the formation of, and 

 the changes which have taken place in, the world in which we 

 live ; or to comprehend the mysteries of vegetable and 

 animal life, we have made of late 5^ears many steps in advance, 

 an encouragement to us and those who come after us, to 

 persevere in our efforts, and not to cease trying to know mol'e 

 than we do, because we cannot know all that is to be known, 

 about even the simplest natural object, whether mineral, 



