NATURAL HISTORY. 
9 
difficulty which individuals find in becoming even 
tolerably well acquainted with the geology, botany, 
and natural history of their own county would thus 
in a great measure be removed : its products and 
manufactures would become familiar to every eye, 
and its history and antiquities to every mind. A tour 
through the provinces of England and Scotland might 
then become a tour of science as well as of pleasure ; 
and the peculiarities of our island, displayed in 
numerous scientific collections, would attract distant 
and even foreign visitors^ whilst they would form so 
many lessons for young persons of our own nation, 
who are, generally, extremely ignorant of every thing 
relating to the country of their birth." 
But the laudable purposes for which our Society 
has been instituted would not be answered by merely 
forming a library, and making a collection of the 
curiosities of the county. We have still higher 
objects in view. We wish to incite our members 
to endeavour to pay their mite into the treasury of 
Natural History, and to institute observations, and 
to collect information on the several branches of this 
engaging pursuit. It is with this intention, that 
committees of members have been formed whose 
duty it is, not only themselves to collect all the 
valuable information within their reach, but also 
to endeavour to arouse a far more intense interest 
in the mind of the community at large, in behalf 
of Natural History, than has hitherto distinguished 
the inhabitants of this highly favoured country. And 
" Let no one imagine" if I may here use the eloquent 
