T43 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION ANNUAL REPORT. 7 



which was pubHshed in full in 'The Naturalist' for October 1889, 

 and the great importance of what they have done has again been fully 

 and generously acknowledged at the British Association meeting. 



The operations of the Marine Zoology Committee have been 

 mainly confined to a couple of dredging expeditions, the first on the 

 occasion of the Union excursion to Robin Hood's Bay, the second 

 in co-operation with members of the Leeds Naturalists' Club. On 

 both occasions numerous specimens were obtained, some of which 

 remain to be submitted to specialists. Some difliculty was experienced 

 from the want of proper dredging appliances, without which it is 

 impossible to obtain many of the smaller organisms, and the Com- 

 mittee consider it very desirable that such apparatus be procured 

 in view of next season's work. The report has already appeared 

 in ' The Naturalist.' 



The Fossil Flora Committee has prepared the first portion of a 

 report on their subject from the pens of Mr. William Cash and 

 Mr. Robert Kidston. which your Executive hope shortly to publish. 



The Coast Erosion Committee have had careful measurements 

 at certain points on the coast made for future reference, beyond 

 which their inquiries have not been as yet extended. 



Proposals will be brought forward at the present meeting for the 

 appointment of three additional Committees, to deal with important 

 subjects upon which the British Association has this year decided to 

 take action, and in which it is highly desirable that all local Societies 

 should co-operate. 



One of these is to be for investigating the causes of the 

 Disappearance of Native Plants, and a second for collecting and 

 recording Geological Photographs of Yorkshire sections. The third 

 committee is for the investigation of the Invertebrate Fauna and 

 Cryptogamic Flora (microscopic forms of life) of the fresh waters 

 of the county, and your Executive recommend that the existing 

 Section G (Micro-Zoology and Micro-Botany) be converted into such 

 committee. It is manifestly impossible for work on such a subject 

 to be carried on and reported upon at the meeting in the same 

 manner as the work of the other sections of the Union. 



British Association. — The Union has again been selected as 

 one of the Corresponding Societies of the British Association, and 

 was represented at the Newcastle meeting of the Association by the 

 Kev. E. P. Knubley, M.A., whose detailed report was published in 

 'The Naturalist' for November 1889. 



The next meeting of the Association is to be held at Leeds in 

 September next, when it is hoped that all Yorkshire naturalists will 

 do what lies in their power to make it a thorough scientific success. 



May i8qo. 



