128 NOTES ON THE CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF THE
also took the opportunity of mentioning that he could no longer
afford to publish the "Annals of British Geology," at a loss, but
that it must cease to exist unless he received increased support.
Mr. Whitaker trusted that Mr. Blake's remarks would tend to
prevent the cessation of a very useful and entertaining work.
Geological Photographs.—Mr. Jeffs, Secretary to the Committee
dealing with this subject, said that the Committee had received
1,055 photographs, and that they passed a resolution recommend-
ing the Council of the British Association, whose property they were,
to deposit them in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street,
London.
Passing from Geology to Geography, I have to note that Mr.
Sowerbutts, the delegate of the Manchester Geographical Society,
who has, year after year, denounced the neglect of geography in
our primary schools, and who this year said, no doubt rightly, that
geography would never be properly taught unless it was made a
compulsory subject, admitted that some improvement had taken
place. It is, indeed, as Mr. Sowerbutts remarked, a strange thing
that geography should be so much neglected by a country owning
more isolated tracts of territory in every quarter of the world than
any other nation. The Manchester Geographical Society, of which
Mr. Sowerbutts is Secretary, has been in the habit of instituting
examinations in geography for school children. The result of a
recent examination on the geography of Yorkshire was to show that
out of 60 candidates, comprising 33 boys and 27 girls, the twelve
prizes and certificates had been won either by Yorkshire girls or
Lancashire boys. A glance at the report of the Society for 1893, a
copy of which Mr. Sowerbutts was good enough to present to each
delegate, shows that the seven successful boys all came from the
Hulme Grammar School, Manchester, while the five prize-winning
girls had all been trained at the Northcote Girls' School, Armley,
Leeds. The advantages of sound methods in teaching geography
could not have been more triumphantly demonstrated.
Mr. Brabrook gave some account of the progress made towards
the Ethnographical Survey during the past year. Their list of suitable
villages had, he said, considerably increased, and amounted to 367.
Mr. Brabrook mentioned the various places at which sub-committees
had been formed. The Keeper of the Museum at Liverpool, Dr.
Forbes, had rendered most valuable assistance, and the Glasgow
Archaeological Society had promised help. Of the places at which