W. DENISON ROEBUCK, F.L.S. : PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 13 
It is for this reason that we have excursions, and that we 
pay so much attention to the social aspect of our annual 
meetings. 
It is for this reason also, in the main, that we visit in 
succession all the nooks and corners of our large field of opera- 
tions, and that our annual meetings are not restricted to any 
one place. 
In this way it is that we have been successful in keeping 
our naturalists in close touch with each other's work, and in 
affording a continual stimulus to progress and activity among 
the workers. 
In this way also, as Mr. Porritt pointed out in his Presidential 
Address of 1900, it is that we have been successful in breaking 
down class distinctions, and making our meetings occasions on 
which naturalists of all grades of life meet on common ground. 
As the Rev. WilUam Fowler also pointed out in his address, 
we have given naturalists the opportunities of making new 
friendships and cementing old ones. 
The effect of the stimulus we give by our peripatetic move- 
ments through our county is well shown by the development of 
the various societies, especially in the Norh and East Ridings. 
As stated at the commencement of this address, the original 
home of naturalist societies in Yorkshire was a limited area in 
the extreme south-west, and at the time of the Union assuming 
its present title, and extending its area so as to cover the whole 
shire, there were practically no natural history societies existent 
elsevv^here than in the West Riding, excepting at Richmond. 
There was no lack of able and enthusiastic individual 
naturalists in the other Ridings, but the few societies which ever 
had existed had died out. 
But the visits of the Union to these Ridings had immediate 
effect, and strong societies were founded in various places. 
One in particular was at Malton, where a society was at 
once started on the occasion of a visit of the Union to that 
district. Others were in like manner founded at Scarborough, 
Pocklington, and Middlesbrough, and an old one revived into 
new vigour at Thirsk. 
Even at Hull, which is now the headquarters of the Union, 
there was no society existing in 1877, but since then no less than 
six different societies have been formed for the purpose of joining 
the Union. The first of these was but a phantom at the time, 
and nothing more was heard of it. Of the others, a process of 
judicial amalgamation produced the two strong organisations 
which now represent Hull in the Union. 
Examination of our Minute Books shows that since 1877 no 
less than seventy societies have been associated with us at one time 
and another, and this number would be still greater if we were 
to include the previous fifteen years. The number of societies 
now in the Union is thirty-one, all the other thirty-nine having 
