24 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
house of defence, and from this cause originated the numberless 
camps which crown every height. - 
On arriving at Alnwick, the members visited the valuable 
geological collections of Mr. Tate, peculiarly rich in organic 
remains, from the carboniferous limestone and Tuedian group. 
At this meeting one member was elected. 
The Firru Meerine was held on September 17, at Ferryhill, 
Morden Carrs and Hardwick. The members assembled at 
Ferryhill, and inspected the section made, in the magnesian lime- 
stone and the accompanying fish bed, by the cutting on the North 
Kastern Railway, near that place. The peculiar features of this 
were illustrated by Messrs. Howse and Abbes, and an ineffectual 
search was made for remains of the fish, which have been found 
so abundantly in the shale, here interposed between the beds 
of magnesian limestone. <A single specimen of Paleoniscus was 
obtained by a member from one of the railway porters. In the 
marshy ground near the railway station Primula farinosa and 
Hydrocotyle vulgaris abounded, and the slope of the wood 
close by was covered with a profuse growth of Columbine, 
Aquilegia vulgaris, probably not indigenous. ‘The club then pro- 
ceeded to Mainsforth the seat of Mrs. Surtees, the widow of the 
learned and accomplished author of the “ History of Durham,” 
and friend of Sir Walter Scott. Here they were most hospitably 
entertained, at breakfast, by that lady, and were afterwards shown 
the valuable collection of fossil fish, obtained from the cutting 
at Ferryhill, which was made for the old south road. These 
fish are of the same species, and from the same stratum, as those 
found in the railway cutting, near the Ferryhill Station. The 
same bed occurs, thrown up out of position by a dyke, near 
Cullercoats, and in a limestone quarry at Middridge, from the 
latter of which places considerable numbers of fish are from time 
to time obtained. At Mainsforth was seen a single horn of the 
great Irish Elk, Megaceros Hibernicus, one of a pair found in 
digging a pond on the Nabshill, near the house. From Mains- 
forth the members proceeded to Morden Carrs, where, under the 
able guidance of Mr. Norman, some rare plants and mollusks 
were obtained in the stells. Among other plants may be 
