THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 135 
A. Waterhouse) that it rose from the ashes of the old 
Society, and to Mr. Brazier that we collected its assets. 
This Society, in its fourteen years of activity, has 
never gone backward, and though some of our old mem- 
bers have dropped out, we have always had some one to 
steer the ship, and a band of workers that have been ably 
assisted by our enthusiastic secretaries, Messrs. Water- 
house, Gurney, Edwards, Cheel, and Shiress. 
We have, I think, spent many pleasant evenings to- 
gether, and our bush tramps have brought kindred spirits 
together and cemented many friendships. 
There are in the other states Field Naturalists’ So- 
cieties, the father of them all, the Field Naturalists’ Club 
of Victoria, founded in 1883. The Geelong Field Natur- 
alist Club formed in 1897, issued the Geelong Naturalist 
in the same year; but two years later, it was merged in 
the journal issued by the Gordon College, under the name 
of The Wombat, which in 1899 returned to its orig- 
inal name of the Geelong Naturalist. 
The Naturalist History Society of Western Austra- 
lia, originally called itself the Mueller Society of Western 
Australia, and is now the Natural History and Science 
Society of Western Australia. The Field Naturalists’ 
Club of Queensland issues a journal, The Queensland 
Naturalist. The Tasmanian Field Naturalists have 
their headquarters at Hobart, and have a large muster. 
and camp out every year. The Northern Field Natur-. 
alists are located at Launceston. 
Every new Field Naturalist added to our ranks, 
either in the town or country, is another centre for th 
spread of Nature Study. The Field Naturalist can often 
brighten the life of the dwellers out-back, for the sur- 
roundings of the bush man and bush woman are full of 
natural wonders, in spite of their monotony, to which 
their attention only needs to be directed; then every tree 
has its story, every waterhole or creek is a home of quaint 
life, and something has its hiding-place under every stone 
or fallen log. The little bush track through the slip- 
rails leads to a fairyland, when once we began to unravel 
Dame Nature’s story, from which the traveller never 
turns back once he has taken the road. 
During the course of the year I get many letters from 
valued correspondents from all parts of Australia, and 
it is one of my privileges, as an officer of the great De- 
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