554 C Proc - B.N.F.C., 



the district. If we want to accomplish our true work as a 

 Field Naturalists Club we must have more workers who will 

 take up definite subjects. 



Let us not be dilletanti, taking a general interest in every 

 branch, but knowing none accurately, too indolent to take the 

 trouble and use the patience and application necessary to make 

 up one subject thoroughly ; nothing can be acquired in this 

 world that is worth having without taking trouble. People 

 will attend lectures by the dozen and look at photos and 

 lantern slides by the hundred, but unless they take trouble and 

 work themselves they cannot learn anything thoroughly in 

 this way, but will only have acquired a miscellaneous smattering 

 of many things. What is learned easily is forgotten ; what 

 is learned with trouble and gradually becomes a treasure for 

 life. 



I come now to the subject of our district. One of the most 

 important objects of a Field Club is to carry out a detailed 

 natural survey of the portion of country which forms its 

 district. 



We may divide Ulster into three portions — North-East, 

 North-West, and Central. The N.E. Ulster, consisting of 

 Londonderry, Antrim and Down, is our district. There should 

 be clubs at Derry and Enniskillen for the other districts, but 

 North and Central Ulster are left derelict, since there are, alas, 

 more counties in Ireland than Naturalists to work them. In 

 this case we in this club are in a sense responsible for the 

 country beyond our own bounds, and efforts should be made 

 from time to time by some of our 330 members to make incur 

 sions beyond our own bounds. These unworked districts 

 would yield, I am sure, valuable results — e.g., parts of Donegal, 

 Monaghan and Tyrone. 



During the thirty-six years of our existence we have gone 

 up and down through the land, and there are now few places 

 of interest left which the Club has not explored. About 250 

 excursions have been made. Don't let us imagine, however, 

 that the district is worked out. Far from it. For one reason 



