WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1884. Ill 



At 2 P. M. the party drove to the Town Hall in Topsfield, 

 about a mile and a half distant, where the afternoon ses- 

 sion was held; the original party having increased to 

 more than thrice its number by accessions from Topsfield, 

 Groveland, Boxford and other towns in the vicinity. 



At 2.30 P. M. the meeting was called to order by 

 President Henry Wheatland, who in an opening address 

 said that the exercises of the afternoon were arranged in 

 commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the meeting 

 held in Topsfield, on Wednesday, April 16, 1834, to 

 complete the organization of the Essex County Natural 

 History Society, one of the parent societies of the Essex 

 Institute, preliminary meetings having been held at 

 Salem in the December previous. It was intended that 

 this meeting should have been held in April, but owing to 

 the backwardness of the season and the inclement weather 

 it was decided that it should be postponed to a day in 

 June, to be selected by the committee on field meetings. 

 Papers, especially prepared for this occasion, which are 

 appended, were read by Prof. E. S. Morse, Mr. John 

 Kobinson, Rev. B. F. McDaniel and Mr. S. P. Fowler. 



After the presentation of the papers the following 

 gentlemen were called upon : 



Hon. JAMES J. H. GREGORY commenced his remarks 

 by quoting the old saying, " If you require proof of their 

 work look around you," and applied it to what the society 

 has done. One thing, he said, the other speakers had 

 not touched upon, local Indian antiquities and relics. 6 



6 This subject was assigned to Vice President Putnam, who had prepared him- 

 self to speak upon it, but was necessarily detained from the meeting. 



