92 



a small balance in hand. I am tlius fairly entitled to assume 

 that our financial condition at the commencement of the 

 present season is entirely satisfactory, and further, that oxtr 

 position generally is one of entire prosperity, while needing 

 only the exertion of that energy and ability which is latent 

 among us to maintain and even to extend that reputation as a 

 body of scientific naturalists which a comparatively few among 

 us have laboured so successfully to establish. 



With these prefatory remarks, I will proceed to give a brief 

 outline of the proceedings of the Club at our different Field 

 Meets during the past season. 



On Thursday, 6th of March, 1873, 



THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CLUB 



for the season was held in the Lecture Eoom of the School of 

 Science and Art, at Gloucester, when the ordinary routine 

 business of the Club was transacted, and the Officers for the 

 ensuing year were chosen, upon which occasion you again did 

 me the honour of calling me to the Chair of the Club. Dr. 

 Weight and Mr. Ltjcy were re-elected Vice-Presidents, and 

 Dr. Paine again kindly accepted the ofi&ce of Hon. Secretary. 



After the President had read his annual address, Mr. LircY 

 read a paper on " The Submerged Forest-Bed near Sharpness." 

 After mentioning that Forest-beds occur at the mouth of all 

 estuarine rivers, and are usually seen at low-water mark, more 

 particularly when the silt which covers them up is removed by 

 storms or land floods, he proceeded to describe the beds at 

 Cromer, on the Norfolk coast ; the section from the borings at 

 Hull ; and the beds at Porlock, in Somerset. He also briefly 

 noticed the beds at Diirnten, Zurich, which resemble in many 

 respects the Cromer forest. He then gave the following account 

 of Holly Hazle : The peat-bed near Sharpness lies in a hollow, 

 resembling very much a trough, excavated out of the lower 

 beds of the ' Old Eed ' marl, and is cut through by Holly Hazle 

 brook a short distance before it reaches the river. The brook 

 is a small stream, rising about two miles distant in the Ludlow 

 Rock. By reference to the carefully prepared map it was seen 



