PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
227 
ought to convince everyone of this fact. It is true that as 
yet it has chiefly been a ease of paying out and not getting 
in, but as the Union is only in its second year the results 
of some of its work are not as yet apparent. I mean as 
regards the publication of what has been done in the joint- 
work of investigating the natural history of the district. 
But though it has not been possible to publish, as yet, 
much on this subject, a lot of work has been and is being 
done, as future years will show. In the meantime good 
has been done by the Union in another direction, namely, 
in the impetus it has given to the various Societies con¬ 
nected with it. 
The delegates assembled in Council found that in all the 
Societies there had been a good deal of complaint about the 
assessment for the first year. Whilst thinking that this 
complaint was unwarranted, they spent a considerable 
time in discussing the means by which the assessment 
could be reduced. The expenses of the Union are almost 
restricted to the expenditure necessary for printing and 
publishing the Reports and Proceedings, and it is absol¬ 
utely necessary for the sake of the work of the Union that 
these should be published. As has been mentioned, it was 
finally agreed that the Reports, &c., should be published 
in the Scottish Naturalist, which would thus become the 
authorised' organ of the Union. But as it is desirable for 
several reasons that the Reports should also appear as a 
separate publication, it was arranged that a certain number 
of reprints should be flung off. Towards the expenses of 
this method of publication it was resolved that a sum not 
exceeding £10 should be paid by the Union. The question 
of a future diminution or increase of the assessment now 
remains in the hands of the members of the various Socie¬ 
ties. If they choose to support the authorised organ of the 
Union by subscribing thereto, the assessment will be 
diminished, as by an increased circulation more space can 
be given to the Reports without calling upon the Union 
for a subsidy. One word with regard to the separate 
copies. It will be remembered that last year copies of the 
Reports were distributed to the members of the Societies 
without charge. How many copies of these were put aside 
or destroyed without being read, we are unwilling to think. 
The number of copies printed (or rather reprinted) in future 
will depend upon how many each Society requires; and each 
Society will dispose of them to its members in the manner 
it chooses. In this way every member who wishes for a 
copy, and gives notice in time, will be able to obtain one 
at a small expense. One thing we would ask on behalf of 
the Union, and this is that, as the plan sketched out above 
is only in course of being tried, members will be lenient in 
judging of its operation during the first year. 
As regards the other resolution of the Council mentioned 
above, viz., the place of meeting for next year, we, as de¬ 
legates of the Perth Society, considered it unadvisable to 
put forward the claims of Perth as next year’s meetihg- 
place. The district of the Union stretches from the Pirtb 
of Porth to Banffshire, and it is desirable that the meet¬ 
ings of successive years should not be in places approximate 
to each other. The Council, we believe, would have been 
willing to select Perth as the next meeting-place, but for 
the welfare of the Union every member concurred in 
recommending Aberdeen as the place of meeting. If this 
Society invites the Union to meet in Perth in 1887, we 
have no doubt but that the invitation will be cordially 
accepted. 
Amongst other business transacted by the Council was 
the appointment of Dr Howden, of the Montrose Society, 
as delegate of the Union to the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, whose meeting was to be held in 
Aberdeen,—this appointment being necessary in conse¬ 
quence of the Union having been recommended forelection 
as one of the Corresponding Societies of the British 
Association. 
In returning thanks to the various members who had 
given in the various Scientific Reports, the Council agreed 
to recommend that the authority given to the various Re¬ 
porters should be continued, and that the further Reports 
should be made on the lines sketched out in the first 
Presidential Address. This recommendation was subse¬ 
quently adopted at the general meeting. A Publication 
Committee (with full powers) was appointed, and it was 
agreed that the assistance of members of all the Societies 
should be asked to work up the bibliography of the natural 
history of the district. As one of the Publication Com¬ 
mittee, I desire to bring this matter—the local bibliography 
—before the members of this Society, with a view to 
obtaining assistance. An indefinite number of scattered 
notes relating to the natural history of the Bast of Scotland 
will be found in various books and periodicals. Bor a 
thorough elucidation of the natural history it is necessary 
that these be collated. If the Reporter on any one subject 
sets to work to find out for himself all that has been written 
—with regard to the district—on his subject, he has no en¬ 
viable task before him. But if members will undertake to 
go through certain books or periodicals, and make notes of 
all local references therein, this division oE labour will 
render the work comparatively easy. I wish, therefore, to 
ask volunteers in this work in our Society. I will give an 
illustration of what I mean. There is an interesting work 
called the “ Statistical Account of Scotland.” The Re¬ 
porter on Ornithology, we will say, for example, wishes to 
