Mr. Hartland, Chairman of the Publications Committee, for the skill and devotion he has bestowed upon all the publications of the Society during his year of office.
The collection of Mexican antiquities which Professor Frederick Starr has so generously presented to the Society has reached England. Allusion was made in the last Report to this valuable collection, and arrangements are being made for its exhibition during 1899. The MS. of an illustrated catalogue of the collection, drawn up by Professor Starr himself, will shortly be in the hands of the printer, and will be issued to the Members as one of the publications for the year 1898.
Among the extra publications for 1899 will, it is hoped, be a further instalment of County Folklore. Mr. G. F. Black's collection of printed extracts of Orkney and Shetland Folklore has now reached the hands of the Council, and will be printed as soon as possible. Mrs. Balfour's collection of Northumbrian Folklore will also be included in the volume. In connection with this matter the Council desire to appeal again for the co-operation of country Members. The publications in which much of the material lies buried are accessible for the most part only to residents within the county, consisting as they do of county histories, transactions of local societies, news- papers, and pamphlets. Many of the rites and superstitions recorded in such publications are now obsolete, or exist only in degraded forms; and it is important for the study of European, and especially of British, folklore, that the collection of these records of the past should be undertaken wherever it may be practicable.
The Council desire to call attention to the value of Folk-Lore (the Transactions of the Society) as a means of intercommunication among Members at a distance from London, for the discussion of scientific problems, and for the record of many items often of unsuspected interest. It is proposed during the present year to enlarge it, and to add
