2 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
upon record in our Transactions a full and minute account of its 
unprecedented weather. Here I need only remind you of the great 
storm of snow on Whit Monday, the 28th of May, which proved 
so destructive to the broods of game, and in the uplands of our 
counties fell in many places to a depth of three feet—of the furious 
wind of October the 3rd, which, as our trees were then in full 
summer foliage, made such havoc amongst them—and of the sud- 
den, severe, and lengthened frost of December and January. This 
frost has been most disastrous to trees and shrubs all over Britain, 
owing mainly to the unripe state in which the shoots were left 
by the ungenial summer and autumn. Let us hope our zealous 
member, Mr. Carr, of Hedgeley, will note its effects in our 
pages, and compare them with the winter of 1854-5. With 
these prefatory remarks, I proceed to discharge the chief duty 
of your President, viz., to lay beforé you the doings of the Club 
during the year. 
The First Frerp Merrtinve of the season was fixed for the first 
of June, at Riding Mill, including a visit to the Devil’s Water. 
When the time for departure arrived, only two members pre- 
sented themselves, for the morning was a hurricane of wind and rain 
from the east, and the idea of venturing out in such a storm was 
abandoned. Instead of this storm, a sharp shower only had 
been experienced at Riding Mill; and it occurs to me that, in 
future, it might not be inadvisable to make a telegraphic 
inquiry as to the state of the weather at the locality proposed to 
be visited, for these hurricanes—as in the present instance—are 
often limited in their extent. Six of the members, however, 
left by a later train, and following the course of the March Burn, 
proceeded as far as Dilston Castle, and after exploring that 
neighbourhood, retraced their steps to the Riding Mill, where 
they dined together, and took the train in the evening to 
Newcastle. 
On the road from Dilston, the party fell in with Mr. Gallon’s 
otter hounds returning from North Tyne, where they had killed 
two fine otters. These specimens of this unwelcome inhabitant 
of our rivers were examined with much interest. 
T am not aware that any rare or local plants were gathered on 
