REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 227 



Walk in Tyuedale.'' Eighteen essays were sent in, and the 

 examiners, Prof. G. S. Brady and Prof. A. Meek, spoke in 

 high terms of the majority of them. The Council have been 

 gratified by the greatly increased interest shown in the com- 

 petition and by the marked rise in the number of competitors. 

 It is obvious now every year that the competition is having a 

 real effect in encouraging outdoor natural history pursuits in 

 the district. 



The attendance of visitors to the museum, as registered by 

 the turnstile, was 18,840 for the year. The day on which the 

 greatest number entered was Easter Monday, when 1,350 

 people passed the turnstile. A course of lectures and " talks," 

 similar to those given every winter for the last few years, was 

 arranged and successfully carried out. The syllabus is printed 

 as an appendix to the report, and it is only necessary here to 

 express the indebtedness of the Society to the lecturers, and to 

 say that the attendances on the whole were very satisfactory. 

 The average audience at the regular evening meetings was 

 about 125, at the children's lectures 165, and at the "museum 

 talks " 60. The recent improvement in the numbers attending 

 the summer field meetings has also been well maintained. 

 The' separate report which is issued later renders it un- 

 necessary to say more here than that a successful series of 

 field meetings has been held. It has been suggested that 

 it would be helpful to the younger naturalists if the field 

 meetings could be supplemented by meetings for work in the 

 winter evenings. 



A large number of interesting donations have been 

 received during the year, and will be found acknowledged at 

 the end of the report. Some call for special mention. Col. 

 C. H. E. Adamson has handed over the last cabinet of his 

 collection of Burmese butterflies, and also a cabinet of lepi- 

 doptera and other insects from India. The Rev. J. E. Hull 

 has largely added to a collection of local spiders given by him 

 some years ago, and the series is now arranged and mounted 

 so as to form a most useful reference collection. Some very 

 good minerals, shells, and birds have been presented by Lord 



