98 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



history objects, all without arrangement, or, as far as I remember, 

 any attempt to convey any definite idea. But now how changed ! 

 It seems that about twenty years ago a few enthusiastic naturalists 

 connected with the society having charge of the museum, resolved 

 to make as complete a collection as possible of the flora and fauna of 

 the county of Perth, and only last November the collection which I 

 saw in 1892, with additions since made, was removed to a fine new 

 wing built on purpose to receive this local gathering of the birds, 

 animals, flowers, rocks and minerals of the county. Among these 

 collectors was Colonel Drummond Hay, of Pitfour Castle, a resident 

 of the parish in which I first saw the light, and who has made a 

 life-study of the habits of " The Birds of Tay," and who has con- 

 tributed nearly the whole of the magnificent ornithological portion 

 of this fine collection. The occasion of this opening was considered 

 so important from a scientific and educational point of view that all 

 the leading educationists and scientific men of neighboring counties 

 were there, and several from Edinburgh and London, as well as the 

 leading citizens and country gentry. When I saw that collection 

 three years ago it seemed to me a realization of the dream I had 

 been indulging in regarding this museum of ours. What they have 

 done we surely can do. If they had a Colonel Hay we have a 

 Colonel Grant, who has shed a lustre over geological science and 

 collecting, and therefore on us just as the former has on ornithology 

 and the Perth museum. And have we not a Mcllwraith, who has 

 with a life-long devotion given himself to this study, and whose bird 

 knowledge has been laid at our feet, and who has by the same made 

 us known and respected in many lands besides our own. Need I 

 speak of Mr. A. E. Walker and our worthy President, able coadju- 

 tors of Col. Grant in bringing to light the hidden things of the rocks. 

 These, with Mr. Dickson in botany, and the yet undiscovered suc- 

 cessor of our good friend Mr. Moffat in entomology, should give us 

 good heart in starting out to found and carry out what I am sure 

 must be the museum of the future in this city. 



If we make an effort therefore to so agitate this matter from to- 

 night that we can get the authorities, either national, provincial 

 or municipal, to believe that the district museum on the lines indi- 

 cated by this paper is a necessary part of the country's educational 

 equipment, we will have done a good work, and helped on the gen 



