424 Anniversary Add/ress. 



Geologists have unlocked all the treasures which lie hid 

 in our rocky strata ? Does any one suppose that the next 

 50 years will see all this accomplished ? I trow not. 



But even if that were so — if your catalogues were all made 

 up and the lists of species complete — every real Naturalist 

 knows that even then you would not have got far beyond 

 the beginning of your work. There is not a living organism, 

 not a plant or animal that has not secrets which 

 we have not yet fathomed — something in its structure or 

 habits fitting it tor the place it has to hold and the work it 

 has to do in the great scheme of Nature. For the investigation 

 of such relations and of the questions which they raise, you 

 have in these Eastern Borders, with their varied scenery, a 

 wide field — than which, I believe, no better is anywhere to 

 be found. And, let me say, it is when the man of science 

 comes to this part of his work that the true charm and value 

 of his studies begin — all his intellectual powers are called 

 into exercise. The great Book of Nature lies before us full 

 of secrets which it is ready to unfold, and the more you 

 ransack its pages and the more you push forward your dis- 

 coveries, you find there is more and yet more to learn. So 

 it goes on from generation to generation. Gentlemen, in such 

 enquiries let us never forget that these are the works of the 

 Infinite Creator with which we are dealing, and therefore 

 they are exhaustless. The whole field is full of the wonders 

 of His hand, and the further we go the more the horizon 

 widens ; the higher we rise the more we behold of the glory 

 of the Great Maker of Heaven and earth, and the more we 

 are compelled to sit down in adoring wonder at the feet of 

 Him " of whom and to whom and through whom are all 

 things." 



