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YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT BARNSLEY. 



The district around Cudworth and Barnsley was chosen for the 

 190th meeting of the Yorkshire NaturaHsts' Union on Saturday, 

 9th September, and there was a very representative attendance 

 — most of the sections being under the guidance of their officials. 



A start was made at Cudworth Station, where some sections 

 in the drift on the Hne side were examined by the permission of 

 the Midland Railway Company. The route was then taken to 

 Grimethorpe and Brierley, and on to Barnsley — the geologists 

 going via Houghton Common, and the botanists, etc., mainly 

 confining their investigation to the various woods in the district. 



After tea the meetings were held in the new rooms of the 

 Barnsley Naturalists' Society — admirable for the housing of 

 the society's collections and the holding of its meetings. The 

 lower room is well arranged as a museum, in which, after the 

 meeting, the evening was pleasantly spent. Amongst the col- 

 lections there exposed are some most valuable specimens of 

 local interest — coal-measure fossils, birds, and antiquities being, 

 perhaps, the most important. One or two objects of more 

 general interest also occur side by side with those enumerated, 

 on account of the somewhat limited space at the society's 

 disposal. There is no doubt that a very valuable educational 

 institution could be made in more commodious premises, and it 

 is a crying disgrace to a town the size of Barnsley that it has 

 not its public building devoted to the purposes of a museum, 

 particularly as we feel sure the Barnsley Society would present 

 its collections to the town were a suitable home for them pro- 

 vided and maintained at the public expense. There are plenty 

 of men in the town and district who have the right ideas as to 

 the nature of a local museum. 



At the general meeting, which was presided over by Mr. 

 G. T. Porritt, various reports on the day's investigations were 

 given, and are printed below. Votes of thanks were also passed 

 to those who had assisted in the success of the meeting, as well 

 as to the landowners for permission to go over their estates. 

 Some new members were elected, and the recently-formed Goole 

 Scientific and Naturalists' Society was affiliated with the Union. 



For the Vertebrate zoologists the secretary, Mr. A. White, 

 reports-: — A stormy, blustering day, with occasional showers, in 

 the month of September, is scarcely an ideal day from an 

 ornithologist's point of view. Thirty-one species of bird life were 

 noted ; there was an abundance of Wood Pigeons, together 



1905 October 2. 



