10 



from each side. The North Sea, if you will take the trouble to 

 look at Mr. Olsen's map, is little more than a great plain covered 

 by shallow water ; off the north-east coast of England it is 20 

 fathoms, and as we go south even this depth is exceptional. 

 The North Sea contains some remarkable depressions, one of 

 which, the Silver Pit, is a narrow submarine valley 50 fathoms 

 in depth, forty miles off the north-east coast of Lincolnshire. 

 The intrusion of this great water, the North Sea, between our- 

 selves and the continent may have been very rapid, for when the 

 chalk barrier, which presumably at one time extended eastward 

 from Flamboro' Head (cropping out again round Heligoland) 

 was once breached and the central river taken in flank, there is 

 no reason why the great level plain of intermediate Lincoln- 

 shire should not have been submerged in a period even of a few 

 days. 



The second meeting was at Woodhall Spa, on August 7th, 

 with a very fair attendance of members, who were taken over 

 the ground by the Rev. J. Conway Walter ; the day was very 

 hot, scarcely any birds were seen and very few insects taken ; 

 the botanical section, was, however, most successful, and several 

 rare plants were fouud, the most interesting, perhaps, being 

 the lovely dark blue gentian, in damp places on the moor. I 

 must take this opportunity of pubhcly expressing the thanks of 

 the Union to our Secretary, Mr. Walter F. Baker, whose un- 

 tiring and intelligent exertions and great aptitude for organisa- 

 tion have done so much in setting us in motion and making the 

 Union a success. 



Before closing these remarks — as we are now engaged in rock- 

 ing the cradle of the Union — I should like to say a few words 

 as to the possibilities of a future, and the taking up of a useful 

 position. There is no other county in England in which the 

 fauna and flora have so greatly altered ; large numbers of birds, 

 insects and plants have been altogether destroyed, or in the for- 

 mer case, driven away by enclosure and drainage. It becomes 

 therefore an imperative duty that we should use our best en- 

 deavours to preserve what is left and to take care that our 

 scarcer mammals, nesting birds and surviving plants are not 

 ruthlessly destroyed and unnecessarily banished. There is no 

 sadder chapter to read than that on " Extermination," in Pro- 

 fessor Newton's recently published Part L of " A Dictionary of 

 Birds ;" it isa record of a destruction and waste of life in this 



