36
VIII. On the Formation of a Local Museum.
By J. E. Harting, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Member of the British
Ornithologists' Union.
[Read May 28th, 1881.]
It was observed by one of the most fascinating of English
writers on local Natural History, that if the natural produc-
tions of every district had their local historian, our know-
ledge of the fauna and flora of this country would become
more perfect than by any other means ; and every one knows
how agreeably and how perfectly the author of that sentiment
carried it into practice.
Living in a remote village in Hampshire, before the clays
of railways, with few neighbours of education to exchange
ideas with, and but few books of reference on his favourite
subject (for few then existed), he was thrown almost 'entirely
on his own resources ; and yet he found abundant occupation
for many years in examining the productions of his own
parish, and in collecting materials for those agreeable
Letters on Natural History which have fortunately been pre-
served to us, and with which every one is, or ought to be,
familiar. As an English classic, every student should read
Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne,' and it will be
surprising if he be not first attracted, soon amused, then
deeply interested, and finally filled with a curiosity and
longing to observe and examine for himself some of the many
remarkable things in nature which are therein only partly
unfolded.
If it be true that a poet is born, not made, the same cannot
be said of the local natural historian. His occupation is not
to conceive beautiful ideas and clothe them with equally
beautiful words ; but to arrive at great scientific truths by a
course of patient and careful investigation, and the judicious
collecting of natural objects illustrative of such truths.