138 THE RKV. MR DAI KI)*S ADDRESS. 



if indeed we can be said to have any laws at all : for, certainly, the rules by 

 which we are guided, are rather certain understood principles and feel- 

 ings, which education, the object which brings us together, or something 

 better than either, has implanted in the bosom of gentlemen, than any 

 complicated or compulsory code of enactments. The motives which in- 

 duce our attendance are, not the fear of pecuniary penalties, nor of any 

 disgrace attached to non-attendance ; but the pleasure, gratification, and 

 instruction, we derive from our meetings, the pleasure of social inter- 

 course, the gratification of beholding and admiring the beautiful scenery 

 of nature, and the instruction, moral and intellectual, which are to be 

 derived from the study of the works of the great Creator, whose good- 

 ness, and wisdom, and power, are conspicuous in them all. In the dis- 

 coveries which are made, we all feel a common interest ; and though all 

 cannot be equally fortunate, the least successful has the same enjoyment 

 as the happy discoverer himself. And though, as we might naturally 

 have expected in so variable a climate as our own, clouds and tempests 

 have occasionally darkened our days of meeting, and some of us have 

 had many a weary mile to travel, yet have we never failed, except, I 

 believe, in a single instance, to have a respectable attendance of mem- 

 bers. 



The contributions which have been made to the Flora and Fauna of 

 the district and country during the past year, have been more scanty 

 than, I believe, during any preceding year of our existence as a Club. 

 This, however, has arisen, neither from any lack or decay of zeal among 

 our members, nor from our past discoveries having exhausted the limited 

 sphere of our observation ; for a vast unexplored field still lies before us ; 

 but from the extremely unpropitious weather of the autumn of 1 836, and 

 of the spring of the present year, weather so ungenial and so remarkable 

 for cold in particular, that the oldest inhabitant of the country scarcely 

 remembers a parallel to it. Yet, that our labours and researches have 

 not been altogether in vain, will be seen from the following short no- 

 tices of our meetings. 



Our Anniversary Meeting in September 1836 was at Yetholm, a vil- 

 lage, or two small villages, embosomed among the lower hills of the Che- 

 viot. The day was most unlike the season, being one of great beauty, 

 and the excursion, though productive of no discovery of importance, 

 was by no means destitute of interest. Our walk was first over Ye- 

 tholm Law a hill cultivated to its summit down to Yetholm Loch, 

 a handsome sheet of water of about 40 acres in extent. Here were ob- 

 served in considerable abundance, Ranunculus Lingua, Typha lati- 

 folia, Nuphar lutea, Cicuta virosa, Scutellaria galericulata, Lythrum 

 salicaria, $c. Linton Loch, or what at least is so called, a few deep, 

 dark, mossy pools of a few yards in diameter, being the only water 

 visible, was next visited. Here, besides the greater number of th plants 



