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T?ie Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalist^ Club, at its 

 Anniversary Meeting held at Lowicky September 28. 1842. By 

 George Darling, Esq., President. 



Gentlemen, 



Again the Anniversary Meeting of our Club has summoned its mem- 

 bers to commemorate its institution, and to hear the result of the la- 

 bours, or, I should rather say, the harvest reaped, not by bodily fatigue, 

 but yielded to the agreeable recreation and innocent pastime of men 

 happy to escape from the monotonous toil of their necessary occupa- 

 tions, to revel in all the beauty of Nature's loveliest scenes, and the 

 thousand charms of her ever-changing aspects, and to have their feelings 

 elevated, and their minds improved, by the calm contemplation of the 

 wonderful works of God. 



The past year has been one peculiar in the recollection of all, and 

 will live in our memories while our lives and our faculties remain. 

 Soon after our last Anniversary Meeting, rain fell in prodigious quan- 

 tities, and we witnessed floods almost unparalleled in the annals of our 

 times. To these succeeded a winter of moderate severity ; the mer- 

 cury occasionally dropping within a few degrees of zero. Spring set 

 in earlier than usual, and with a degree of warmth seldom felt in this 

 district. On the 4th of March, a steady course of dry weather com- 

 menced, which, almost without intermission, continued until the 10th 

 of August, when a severe thunder-storm passed over the whole land, and 

 rain fell in considerable quantities ; but a day sufficed to restore the 

 lovely weather, and for three weeks longer the heat vied with that of 

 India ; the thermometer frequently standing so high as 80° and 85° 

 in the shade, and once so high as 95°. This was again followed by the 

 escape of an immense quantity of the electric fluid ; so rapid were the 

 discharges, that we counted twenty-seven flashes in five minutes' space, 

 and the thunder seemed one continuous roll. This second storm pro- 

 duced no heavy rain in our immediate vicinity, but effectually changed 

 the character of the weather, which has continued showery up to this 

 time; and the parched and cracked earth is again beginning to le 

 clothed with green, where, for months, the brown hue of sterility every 

 where met the eye, and made the heart ache for the famishing flocks, 

 whose protruding ribs were so many solid voices bespeaking the extent 

 of their privations. The very trees shed their leaves untimely, and 



B. N. C. VOL. II. NO. X. A 



