VI PREFACE. 



It was, no doubt, the original intention of the founders of the Lite- 

 rary Society of Newcastle to embrace all the objects of scientific 

 research ; but it was soon found, that, for want of sufficient funds and 

 accommodations, many departments were necessarily neglected, and 

 that it was extremely desirable that new institutions should be formed, 

 not as rivals, but as subsidiaries to that, which the members of each 

 separate establishment always wished to have considered as the Parent 

 Institution. 



With these views the Natural History Society was estabhshed, and 

 the volume which it now submits to the public attention may be consi- 

 'dered as its first fruits. The Committee presume to hope that it will 

 be found to contain many valuable offerings to the enlargement of natu- 

 ral knowledge in its three great departments ; but especially, that the 

 papers, which it contains on the Geological peculiarities of the district, 

 with which it is more immediately connected, will be found particularly 

 valuable. 



The Committee deem it necessary to state, that the authors of the 

 several papers are respectively answerable for the facts and inferences 

 contained in each. 



