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Address to the Members of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, after 

 the Sixth Anniversary Meeting, held at Norham, September 20th 

 1837- By the Rev. JOHN BAIRD of Yetholm, President. 



GENTLEMEN, 



CIRCUMSTANCES, which formed only too sufficient an apology for my 

 absence, having denied me the pleasure of meeting you at the last Anni- 

 versary of our Club, and of returning you thanks in person, not only 

 for the honour you formerly did me, in electing me to the chair of 

 President ; but for the forbearance also shewn me while I held that of- 

 fice ; I have now only farther to solicit your indulgence, while I en- 

 deavour, after the example of my predecessors (and, as I believe, is still 

 expected of me), to take a short retrospect of the doings and discoveries 

 of the Club during the last twelve months, ending the third Wednesday 

 of September last. Before doing so, however, I perceive it has been cus- 

 tomary to congratulate the Club on the prosperity which continues to 

 attend us, and I am happy to be able, after a Sixth Anniversary Meet- 

 ing, to address you in the same cheering language. The success of our 

 experiment, indeed, has far exceeded, I believe, the expectations of the 

 most sanguine of our members. We were among the first, and I believe 

 the very first, in Scotland, to attempt the formation of a society like the 

 present, whose object should be, minutely to examine and illustrate the 

 Natural History and Antiquities of a*particular district or locality ; to 

 meet frequently together for this purpose in different places within the 

 appointed limits ; to spend the day in a personal investigation of its va- 

 rious objects of interest ; and to record our observations and discoveries 

 in papers read at our meetings. The design was not more simple than 

 admirable, and it has prospered beyond our hopes. Many interesting 

 discoveries have been made, much valuable information accumulated, 

 and several new and important additions have been made to the Flora 

 and Fauna of Great Britain. Our list of Members too, is not only nume- 

 rous, but includes several names of eminence ; and, what is not the least 

 interesting feature of our Club, we continue, after an existence of six 

 long years, to meet with the same zeal, and with the same anticipations 

 of enjoyment, as we did at our first formation, when our Society posses- ' 

 sed all the freshness and interest of novelty, and it was yet an untried 

 experiment. The harmony of our meetings has scarcely ever for one 

 moment been interrupted ; and we have, at this moment, the same pros- 

 pect of pleasure and prosperity before us, as we had at the commence- 

 ment of our Institution. I cannot help thinking, that one of the prin- 

 cipal causes of our success, and of the harmony which pervades our 

 meetings, is the short and simple character of our laws and regulations ; 



B. N. C. NO. V. I 



