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ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE TYNESIDE 
NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB, 
READ AT THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING, HELD IN THE 
COMMITTEE ROOM OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 
NEWCASTLE, MARCH Ist, 1850, sy JOSHUA ALDER, Ese., 
PRESIDENT. 
GentLEMEN,—At the conclusion of my year of office, and before 
resigning the chair to which you did me the honour of electing 
me at the last anniversary, it now becomes my duty to take a short 
review of the proceedings of the Club during the past season. 
In doing this, it is not my intention to enlarge upon the 
advantages of the study for the advancement of which we are 
associated,—a subject on which I hope we are all agreed,—but 
rather to confine my remarks as much as possible to matters of a 
practical nature. 
Our meetings during the year have not, perhaps, left us any- 
thing veryremarkable to record, but, at the same time, they may be 
looked back upon with satisfaction, as having afforded us many 
opportunities of instructive intercourse and enjoyment, while 
rambling together over those pleasant tracts of country in which 
they have been held. But although, excepting in one instance, 
no great novelty has been met with during our excursions, yet I 
hope to show that the year has not passed over without some 
results, due to the exertions of individual members, which, em- 
bodied in the Transactions of the Club, will afford a permanent 
memorial of its usefulness. 
In no country in Europe has so much been done for the ad- 
vancement of local natural history as in Great Britain. Our 
works on native species are more numerous and accurate, 
especially in the zoological department, than those of our conti- 
nental neighbours, while the great extent of our sea coasts gives 
a variety to our natural productions which few other countries 
VOL. I. Tt 
