XOTES AND QUERIES, 



329 



XOTES AXD QL^ERIES. 



SooiER-MzETrs-GS or THE Geologists' Associatio>-. — As a member of tlie 

 Geologists' Association, I must ask permission to trespass on your space for the 

 means of suggesting that it would be desirable for that Society to institute 

 field-meetings during the present summer-season. I know there are other 

 members who hke myseK regret that oirc labours appear to hare terminated 

 with the MTnter-session of paper-reading and lectures. Xow, Sir. I know it was 

 felt at the outset of the Association by very many of the working geologists 

 who so freely came forward to join it, both those resident in London and those 

 in the country, that such field-meetings were as, or even more, essential to the 

 instruction of young and working geologists, and to the general progress of the 

 science — for I am one at least who thinks the humblest labourer of some value 

 ha. the community — as the instructive readings and discussions at the Society's 

 chambers. It is not altogether in-door instiiiction we really want ; there is far 

 more to be leamt in the field ; and doubtless there, too, we should find gentle- 

 men with the right, both legal and intellectual, to add the F.G.S. to then- names, 

 ready to aid and assist us, as we have done already at the Society's rooms. 



Some one, I think, before the institution of the Society, did propose such 

 field-meetings, and I woidd ask, could not one, at least, be held with advantage 

 annually in some locality or place of geological interest, when suitable papers 

 might be read, and followed by discussions; fossils and other objects brought 

 together ; excursions made, and other means adopted for collecting and impart- 

 ing information ? 



Perhaps something might be established in imitation of the plan of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, though, of coiu'se, less pretending. 



One or two hundred working members might be got together, and by a steady 

 onward course for a few years, a large amount of valuable material might be 

 got up. It is true we have the Geological Societies of London and of Edin- 

 burgh, two most hnportant and iiifiuential bodies : but these Societies, from 

 the restrictive character of their respective constitutions, and the natiu-e 

 of the rules by which they are governed, are totally useless to the class of per- 

 sons which the Geologists' Association was designed to benefit, and I beHeve 

 tlus class to be far more numerous than it is generally thought. 



I cannot help tlunking the tune has arrived when we should set about doing 

 something of this kind, and I shall look for the next month's Geologist with 

 no small anxiety, in the hope to find that some such course of action shall have 

 been determined upon, and that the Society you so freely helped to established 

 may, without attempting to emulate the more learned bodies, properly develope 

 another, and not the least important of its soiu'ces and means of instruction. 



I have, moreover, preferred that my idea should, by your kind consent, be 

 propagated in your pages, as many members of the Association are included in 

 the multitude of your readers, anci hence suggestions wid most likely be made 

 which may add to the value of mine. The excursion-trains, at this period run- 

 imig on every line in the kingdom, alford the means of country-members meet- 

 ing at any appointed place their city brethren, and inter^'iews and introductions 

 would thus take place to which higher fares and less agreeable travelling would 

 be a barrier in the winter months. — I am, dear sii', your weU ^Aisher and reader, 

 A Provixcial Geologist. 



Cheap Caeixets ior Possils. — Sie, — "Wliat is the cheapest way of getting 

 cabinets made for fossils and minerals r It seems almost impossible in the 



