ADDRESS OF THE RETIRmG PRESIDENT, 



(DR. M'CXJLLOUGH.) 



EEAD AT THE ANITOAL MEETING, MONDAY, MAJRCH XsT, 1869. 



GENTLEMEN,— I am now, at the termination of my period of oflSce, required 

 by the rules to address you on the proceedings of the year. I shall not, 

 however, attempt to enter into the details of our meetings, which have already 

 been reported very fully, but shall pass shortly in review the various subjects 

 which have been brought before us in the different branches of Natural History, 



Geology, I think, claims the first place, both from the name of our club 

 and from our traditions. Whilst it must always occupy a large share of our 

 attention, we may congratulate ourselves that it does not predominate as for- 

 merly, not, I hope, that we cultivate this comer of our field less, but that tha 

 others have been less neglected. To appreciate Nature thoroughly it must be 

 studied as a whole, and however wonderful the records of a dead world may 

 be — and none but those who study them can imagine how wonderful they are — 

 they are even surpassed in interest by the phenomena of the living world, which 

 are passing hourly before our eyes. 



Beginning with the oldest formation which we have investigated, tha 

 Silurian, we commenced the season at Wicton, in the hope of finding a new 

 exposure of that formation, but although we found undoubted Silurian fossils, 

 they were not in situ, and our attention was happily called to a subject of great 

 interest, and one which, perhaps, more than any other requires working out in 

 our district, that of the superficial deposits. In a district such as this, attention 



