1 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



what was the outcome. After the reasonable period of two years 

 there appeared the first instalment of the projected work, viz., the 

 part dealing with botany — a workmanlike production. Three years 

 later came the second part, dealing with meteorology, the plan of 

 arrangement not being quite so satisfactory as the first, but the zeal 

 of the compiler being equally evident, and the material brought 

 together large in amount. With this instalment the work seems to 

 have come to a close ; certain it is that in the dozen years which 

 have elapsed since then nothing additional has appeared in the 

 Transactions of the Society. Now, it is surely desirable that 

 so important an undertaking should be resumed without delay. 

 If a good reason for action existed nineteen years ago, the need 

 now must be clamant indeed. "Without knowing of the scheme, 

 I suggested in 1893 that the cataloguing of all writings on South 

 African geology should be taken up, preparatory to approaching 

 Government with a petition for the initiation of a geological survey ; 

 and thanks to the secretary of the Commission which followed on 

 this, an excellent first-approximation to such a catalogue has been 

 compiled and published. In view of this, and of the existence of a 

 Geological Commission, another of the six subjects may, therefore, 

 be considered as having been fully attended to. Recently, also, I 

 have learned that the member to whom the subject of Geography 

 was originally entrusted, Mr. Schunke, has not at all been neg- 

 lectful of his duty, and that about two years ago, when his whole 

 attention had to be directed to other affairs, his manuscript was 

 almost ready for the printer. It would be a matter for extreme 

 regret if the immense labour which had been spent on this com- 

 pilation during so many years should run any chance of being 

 thrown away, or that further delay in publication should be the 

 cause of another student wasting valuable time in producing a 

 similar manuscript through ignorance of what has already been 

 done. The delay may be due to a desire for perfection, but perfec- 

 tion in such an undertaking is practically unattainable ; it is a will- 

 o'-the-wisp, which may be pursued until lasting harm is done. No 

 real worker in science objects to an incomplete bibliography, when 

 it is the only one in existence ; all that he asks for is that additions 

 be steadily made to it, and that the man who publishes a second 

 shall produce a fuller and better. If Mr. Schunke would entrust 

 the Society with his manuscript in its present form, I think we 

 might guarantee to him that every effort would be made to secure a 

 competent editor ; indeed, I believe that in the headmaster of the 

 Grey Institute at Port Elizabeth would be found a man who would 

 look upon the editing as a real labour of love. In regard to the two 



