16 
REPORT. 
The advantages which had been anticipated to the 
illustration of Natural History, from a Society confining its 
attention to a particular field of research, and yet spread over 
a district of such extent and variety as the County of York, 
are already beginning to be conspicuous. It will appear 
from the list subjoined to this Report, that in the last year 
upwards of two thousand specimens of Minerals and 
Fossils, for the most part illustrative of the Geology of York¬ 
shire, have been entered on the Society’s Catalogue, as 
gratuitous donations, exclusive of the two hundred and 
forty five specimens from the Cave of Kirkdale, which 
formed the commencement of this part of the Museum ; and 
it will be also seen, that in the various branches of Zoologjq 
and in the Antiquarian Department, valuable contributions 
have been furnished, and the foundation of future collections 
laid. 
f 
The principle on which the Society has proceeded, of fixing 
the terms of Subscription as low as possible, in order that no 
cultivator of Science might be excluded from it by pecuniary 
considerations, renders the utmost economy necessary in the 
management of its funds ; and the Committee have not thought 
themselves justified in laying out any considerable sum in 
the purchase of Fossils, however desirable for the Museum, 
but have trusted, for the enlargement of the geological col¬ 
lection, almost entirely to the zeal and liberality of individual 
Members. But with respect to Mineralogy, in which speci¬ 
mens arc more expensive and less easily procured, they have 
