59$ [Proc. B.N.F.C. 



inquiries regarding legends, superstitions, proverbs, folk-lore, 

 racial characteristics, archaeology, ancient monuments, Palaeo- 

 lithic remains, coast erosion, erratic blocks, geological pheno- 

 mena, migration of birds, the life history of plants and animals, 

 rrarine and fresh-water fish. Photography is becoming more 

 and more applicable for the purposes of scientific investigation, 

 and local societies may render very valuable aid by its syste- 

 matic use. A committee has been appointed by the association 

 for some years past for collecting and arranging photographs 

 of geological phenomena. On this committee there are only 

 two Irish members, and both are members of the Belfast 

 Naturalists' Field Club. According to the last report, the num- 

 bers of geological photographs contributed by Great Britain 

 and Ireland are as follows : — England, 1,499 ; Scotland, 310 ; 

 Wales, 173 ; Ireland, 507. The three largest county contribu- 

 tors are: — Yorkshire, 446; Antrim, 226; Devonshire, 126. 

 Ireland contributes more than Scotland and Wales together, 

 and County Antrim is the second largest contributing county 

 in the kingdom. The contributions from Ireland were mainly 

 through the B.N.F.C, assisted by the Limerick Field Club. 

 Several attempts have been made both in Great Britain and 

 Ireland to procure archaeological or anthropological surveys of 

 each country, but the success that has hitherto attended such 

 efforts has not been anything like what might be reasonably 

 expected, considering the many facilities that now exist for 

 obtaining contributions towards the formation of such surveys 

 and the great army of photographers that are now in the field. 

 The slow and limited progress made is entirely due to the want 

 of some central, systematic, and persistent organisation to guide, 

 collect, and arrange results. Systematic work without persis- 

 tence becomes as useless as persistent work without system, and 

 of both we have too many examples, and local societies and 

 individual workers will carry on this undisciplined work, unless 

 they are instructed and controlled by such central authorities 

 as the Royal Society of Antiquaries, the Anthropological 

 Institute of Great Britain, or the Royal Society of Antiquaries 



