RECORDS OF MEETINGS. 
371 
The Hon. Secretary submitted a draft of the Report to be 
presented to the Annual Meeting, which was approved. 
Officers and Members of Council. — The Hon. Secretary 
reported a vacancy in the Council by the death of Mr. Thos. 
Tate, F.G.S. The Secretary also read letters from Mr. J. R. Eddy, 
F.G.S., and Mr. D. Forsyth, D.Sc, M.A., intimating their inability 
to attend the meetings of the Council, and asking that their names 
should not be submitted to the Annual Meeting. After some 
discussion it was resolved that the Council much regretted that 
feeble health should necessitate the retirement of their old and 
valued colleague, Mr. Eddy, and that the pressure of professional 
duties should prevent Dr. Forsyth from allowing his name to be 
retained on the Council. It was resolved that the names of 
Messrs. Godfrey Bingley, F. W. Branson, F.I.C., and F. F. Walton, 
F.G.S., should be nominated at the Annual Meeting to fill the 
three vacancies in the Council. 
It was also resolved, after some conversation on the advisability 
of curtailing the time spent on routine work at the Annual 
Meeting, that the Secretary should prepare a nomination paper 
with the names of the Officers and Council as amended above, and 
print and circulate it amongst the members as the nomination of 
the retiring Council. But that any member have the right to 
nominate other names, and that, in case of such extra nomination, 
a ballot be taken at the Annual Meeting. 
The General Meetings and Field Excursions for 1898 were 
then considered. It was resolved that the 1898 Meetings be held 
at Clapham, with Professor T. McKenny Hughes, F.R.S., as leader, 
and at Malton, for the Wolds, with Rev. E. Maule Cole, M.A., 
F.G.S., as leader. 
Annual General Meeting at Ripon, Thursday, October 7th, 
1897. 
By the kind invitation of the President of the Society (The 
Marquis of Ripon, K.G.), the members paid a visit to Studley 
Royal and Fountains' Abbey, The party went to the Canal 
Gates in wagonettes, and were met by Mr. T. S. Mason, of 
