255 

 THE ADDRESS 



Of the retiring President, R. W. Basks, Esq., read before the Members of the 

 Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, at their Annual Meeting, held in Hereford, 

 on Thursday, February 7th, 1861. 



GENTLEMEN,-On retiring from the office of President, it becomes my duty 

 to present to you a summary of the proceedings of the Club during the past yeai'. 

 and to offer such suggestions as will, in my opinion, best promote the objects 

 which it has in view. I enter upon the subject ^vith a feeling of diffidence, as my 

 remarks are founded more on the discoveries and observations of others, than of 

 myself, and I must therefore request your indulgence for any errors into which 

 I may fall, and for the want of anything novel in my address. 



The addresses of preceding Presidents have in many respects anticipated the 

 remarks which I might have made, and have somewhat circumscribed the field 

 over which I have to travel. I shall however endeavour, as far as I am able, to 

 avoid a repetition of their views and suggestions, merely calling your attention 

 to them as I proceed. 



We must deem it a fortunate circumstance, that during an unusually wet 

 season, we were able to hold our Field Meetings on the days originally fixed, and 

 to enjoy on each of those days, uninterrupted fine weather. 



You will all remember the hospitable reception which we met with at Lyston, 

 the residence of one of our Vice-Presidents, Mr. Lingwood, prior to our excursion 

 on the 5th of June. The object of our meeting was to explore that well-defined 

 ridge known as Saddlebow Hill, which appears to an observer from the northern 

 part of this County, as one of the southern barriers to the valley of the Old Red 

 Sandstone. Mr. Lingwood had discovered a head of Pteraspis Lloydii m the 

 Comstones of Orcop : there was therefore a reasonable hope that we might on 

 our way find some traces of the Old Red fishes. In this we were disappomted; 

 but although we failed to find any fossil remains, we obtained an admirable survey 

 of the country. Having ascended the hill from Lyston, we looked down on the 

 well-wooded grounds of Mvnde Park, and passing near Orcop, and over Saddlebow 

 Hill arrived at Garway Hill, the extremity of the range. From its summit a 

 magnificent prospect opened to our view ; to the west lay the Skymd, and the 

 hills of the Upper division of Old Red, which surround Abergavenny-to the 

 north-west the long range of the Black Mountains, and in the same direction, 

 considerably in advance, the comparatively low range of Cornstone hills which 

 extends from St. Devereux to the Wye at Whitney ;-looking to the north, over 

 the wide vallev of Old Red, Lady Lift and Dinmore hills appeared-beyond 

 them the Ludlow rocks, represented by Hergest ridge and Bradnor, and, in the 

 extreme distance, Radnor Forest, occasionally hidden by passing showers ;-to 

 the east, the well-known features of the Titterstone Clee Hill and Wenlock Edge, 

 and the' somewhat tame outline of the Longmynds, the oldest of our fossiliferous 

 rocks, thus affording a view of the whole range of Palaeozoic rocks. Turning 



