3o8 AW UAL REPORT. 



Meetings. — Eleven meetings (including the Annual Meeting) were held 

 during the year, which, as usual, have been very fully reported in our 

 Journal. In connection with these meetings the Council has great pleasure 

 in recording the thanks of the Club to those who aided in various ways. 

 Amongst others the following should be specially mentioned : — Prof. Watts and 

 Mr. J. V. Holmes, lantern demonstration of photographs of geological interest 

 at the meeting on January 28th, 1899 ; Mr. J. J. Vezey, Treasurer of the 

 Quekett Microscopical Club, and Mr. D. J. Scourfield, to whom the Club 

 was indebted for an excellent lantern demonstration of the Pond-life in 

 Epping Forest, on February 25th ; Mr. Fredk. Enock, F.L.S., for one of his 

 graphic and original lantern lectures, " The Life-history of the Tiger-beetle" 

 at the meeting on March 25th; on April 22nd Mr. and Mrs. E. N. Buxton 

 most kindly entertained the Club to a garden party at " Knighton " ; on June 

 15th we had again to thank Major Flower and the Lee Conservancy Board 

 for the loan of the " Salisbury " for the voyage on the Lea from Hertford 

 to Waltham Abbey ; on that occasion also we were indebted to Mr. Corbie, 

 the Clerk to the Conservancy, for 50 copies of the pamphlet " Walton's 

 Favourite River" for distribution on board, and to Mr. Mark Davies for 

 notes on angling in the river ; to Mr. Winstone for an account of Rye 

 House, to Mr. Holmes for notes on the topography of the Lea, and to 

 Mr. W. M. Webb for demonstration of the river and river-side mollusca. 

 On June 24th a meeting was held at Charlton, Kent, to meet the members of 

 the Croydon Natural History Society, when Dr. F. Parsons and Mr. N. F. 

 Robarts were conductors. At the meeting at Fovvlness on July 22nd, Mr. 

 W. H. Dalton gave his services, and members of the Club were kindly enter- 

 tained at "afternoon tea" by the Rector, the Rev. R. H. Marsh. At the 

 Annual Cryptogamic Meeting we had the assistance of Dr. Cooke, Mr. Massee 

 and Prof. Boulger. Mr. Rudler kindly gave a demonstration at the Museum 

 of Practical Geology on December i6th, so ending the sessional meetings. 



The Council acknowledges again with gratitude the facilities given by 

 the Technical Instruction Committee of the Borough of West Ham and by 

 Mr. Briscoe, the Principal, for the meetings in rooms in the Institute. Most 

 unfortunately our winter meetings were interrupted by the disastrous fire 

 which occurred at the Iiistitute on October 23rd, 1899. This sad event 

 diminished the number of our meetings, and much upset arrangements in 

 other ways. 



The advantages of a commodious and fixed assembling room for the 

 winter ses.sion has been forcibly emphasised by the experiences of shifting the 

 meeting places during the last few years. With the new museum and library, 

 the rooms in the Technical Institute will furnish facilities that the Club has 

 never before possessed. As announced in one of the circulars to the members 

 the object the Council has in view is to resume the old plan of Winter 

 Meetings at fixed dates, with the Institute Museum and Library as the 

 rendezvous. 



It is by no means intended that Winter Meetings should not be held 

 occasionally in other centres ; the meetings at the Institute will he fixed ones, 

 while those held elsewhere will be announced from time to time by Special 

 Circular, as Field Meetings are advertised. 



