PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS: ri 
increase, not only as regards members, of whom it now numbers 
between five and six hundred, but also as to the great esteem 
with which its published Transactions are regarded by the 
learned world. 
A few years ago, the wide excursions now planned and 
executed by the Club would have been simply impossible. Our 
excursions from Edinburgh, under that hardy pioneer of science, 
the late Professor Jameson, seldom extended beyond walking 
distance, whereas now it is not uncommon for the members of 
the Club to breakfast some forty or fifty miles from Newcastle, 
to spend the day in exploring mountain ranges that cannot even 
be seen from the vicinity of our town, and yet to reach home 
comfortably at night-fall. Every year fresh lines of railway are 
being opened in this district, and thereby fresh facilities for | 
visiting distant localities are afforded to the Club. The Barnard 
Castle line from Auckland has opened to us the rich valley of the 
upper Tees; the new Waverley Route allowed us this year to 
rendezvous at Kielder; the Lanchester Valley line has given 
access to the Browney district, and Redesdale and Wallington 
will soon be visited by the Club as the railway thither is to be 
completed this year. The Naturalists of the Scottish capital and 
of the great coal metropolis of the north, may be said to have 
shaken hands on the Border, for only a week previous to our 
visit to Kielder, some eighty Edinburgh students, the botanical 
class of Professor Balfour, spent a day in botanizing at the head 
of the North Tyne, and returned to Edinburgh at night. 
The field meetings of the Club during the past year have 
been exceedingly well attended. 
The preliminary social gathering of the season, the meeting in 
May, was held at Ryhope, and was terminated by a dinner of 
about twenty-five of the members at Seaham Harbour. The 
weather was dry, but exceedingly cold, and the piercing north 
wind had so raised the sea, that very little could be done in the 
way of geology; or among the rocks within high water mark. 
The June meeting was appointed for Lanchester, on the new 
Lanchester Valley line. About sixty members left Durham 
and proceeded by train up the valley of the Browney to Witton 
