17 tw 



LttRARY 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 





Prof. Joim Macoun, F.L.S., F.R.S.C, Exc.-^^^ 

 (delivered 13th January, 1887). 

 Members of the Ottawa Field-Natural'sts Club, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



Shortly after my election last year my duties called u.e away to 

 London, England, where I remained eight months, in consequence of 

 this I took no part in the field work of the Club during last summer. 

 That T might judge of the work of other organizations doing work 

 similar to ours, I attended meetings of the Croydon Field-Naturalists' 

 Club and by this means am enabled to compare our mode of procedure 

 with theirs. With that object in view T will give my impression of a 

 trip to the North Downs, in Surrey, on Whit Monday, May 29th, 1886. 



A large party, many of them specialists, assembled at East Croydon 

 station about 9 a.m. and took the train for Oxsted, a village to the 

 south of the North Downs. A tunnel of gi-eat length pierces the Chalk 

 hills and only a few minutes elapsed before we were at our station 

 about 14 miles from Croydon. Amongst the company were specialists 

 in almost every branch of Natural History, and alttough most of those 

 present were city men I saw at a glance they were widely different from 

 the majority of those who attend our outings and belong to our city. 

 Without excejition every man entered into the business of the day 

 with the zest of an enthusiast and went to work with a will. After a 

 few moments' conversation it was decided that we should separate into 

 smaller parties and meet for lunch at Buckley Clump, on the summit 

 of the North Downs, which is a range of chalk hills lying between the 

 Weald of Kent and London. We now separated into smaller groups, 

 and while some kept along the main roads others went by lanes and 

 paths through a beautiful and diversified country, while the party to 

 which I attached myself rambled through the woods which covered 

 the upper part of the slope, whera we C3llected entomological and 

 botanical specimens to our hearts' content. 



Shortly after noon we all assembled at the "Clump" of beeches, and 

 as we lay around in the shade or sat on mossy couches beneath the 

 trees, eating our lunch and discussing the various beauties of the land- 

 scape, gentlemen acquainted with the topography and various villages 



