208 president's address. 



tions, to illustrate the theory that the head is a portion of the 

 vertebral column — ^that of man consisting of the nasal, frontal, 

 parietal, and occipital vertebrae. 



Five candidates were admitted into the Club at this meeting. 

 In turning from our meetings to the printed " Transactions " 

 now in the hands of our members, I trust we may congratulate 

 ourselves on the activity of our Society. The part for the past 

 year exemplifies the assiduity and research of many of our body 

 in the various branches of knowledge which are comprised in our 

 province. In Meteorology we have two papers by our Secretary, 

 Mr. Mennell, and Mr. Watson, before alluded to; in Antiquarian 

 research, an interesting account by Mr. Johnson, of Roman 

 remains found in the Wear; and in Geology, the study of which we 

 may consider as both the basis and the culminating point of natural 

 science, the valuable contribution of Messrs Kirkby and Jones 

 continues the history of the Permian strata of the county of 

 Durham. Dr. Charlton has supplied us with a learned and 

 accurate summary of the history, so far as yet known, of the 

 former abundance, and present too probable extinction of the Great 

 Auk. Mr. Bold has contributed a paper on the additions to our 

 Entomological knowledge in the year 1858; while Mr. Alder has 

 again enriched our local fauna by two new species of Sertularian 

 Zoophytes found on the Northumberland coast, and illustrated 

 his descriptions by two admirable plates. 



While referring to Dr. Charlton's able paper on the Great 

 Auk, I may mention that my late valued friend, Mr. John 

 Wolley, personally known to several of us, whose sudden and 

 early removal hence has left a blank in the ranks of our working 

 ornithologists which can never be filled, had very recently under- 

 taken a voyage to Iceland in prosecution of his researches 

 respecting the Great Auk, which had already occupied several 

 years of his life. He has left behind him an accumulation of 

 notes and papers respecting that bird which have been entrusted 

 to Mr. Alfred Newton, Fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, 

 for arrangement and publication. The name of that gentleman 

 is a sufficient guarantee that full justice will be done to Mr. 

 Wolley's MSS. by his literary executor. 



