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programme of going by the "Wave" steamer down the Canal to 

 Sharpness, and thence in the " Eagle " steamer to visit the Cliffs of 

 Pennarth (which exhibit at one view the upper beds of the New Bed 

 Sandstone, and the entire series of the lower lias beds), and the 

 generally interesting shores of the Severn, including the Bone bed at 

 Aust. Down the Canal we chatted merrily. Boarding the "Eagle " 

 on we steamed, talking of Pennarth, of its interesting Cliffs, and of 

 the Mends from Bristol, who had promised to meet us there, and it 

 was only as we neared the Holms, that the truth oozed out, that so 

 deep a bank of mud, impassible to human foot, lay between the 

 water and the Cliff that our landing was impossible, and our scien- 

 tific examination of the Lias dwindled away to an hour or two 

 strolling about the Holms. However, in misfortune, the only thing 

 to be done is to make the best of it, and so interesting a lecture did 

 we get from the ever-ready Professor Buckman, that many of the 

 less scientific of the party declared that they had gained more in- 

 struction and pleasure on the Holms than they could have hoped for 

 at Pennarth. 



On September 1 5 a meeting took place in the Forest of Dean. 

 I myself was engaged with our Regiment of Yeomanry, at Chelten- 

 ham, and therefore was not much more than half wet through. 

 But in the Forest I can quite imagine that there was no half-and- 

 half wetting. Mr. Jones, Dr. Watson, and Mr. Ford are recorded to 

 have stood it, and walked it, and, despite of the air and the water, 

 to have taken good note of the earth where the cuttings of the rail- 

 ways and the mines displayed her heretofore hidden treasures. 

 Honour be to the trio who braved the elements. Yet, had not 

 other duties called him, I think that the trio would not have had it 

 all to themselves, but TA ould have been converted to a quartett by 

 the presence of your President. And thus ended the Thirteenth 

 year of our Club. 



And now, my kind friends, I am about to resign my office into 

 your hands ; but not as usual with the will to resume it, should you, 

 as you have hitherto done, kindly ask me to do so. 



I have long felt that, for many reasons, I was unfit any longer 

 to hold such a office. In good truth, I never was fitted for it ; but 

 I hoped that my good- will to the Club, my love (notwithstanding my 

 want of knowledge) of the study of nature, and the time and atten- 

 tion I was able to devote to it, atoned in some degree for my defi- 

 ciency in science. 



But, of late years, another study has occupied me. One so 

 engrossing that I have willingly given my heart and my health to 

 the work. It has not, indeed, lessened my love for the glories of 

 nature in any degree. It has not diminished my interest in the 

 prosperity of the Club ; but it has so absorbed my time and my 

 strength, that frequently I am incapacitated from attending to any, 

 but the one object of my thoughts. For a time I believed that the 

 difficulty of organizing the system of Reformatories throughout 

 England would soon be done. But as he who climbs a mountain, 



