182 peesident's addeess. 



to dinner, Dr. Embleton taking the chair. Being compelled by 

 an engagement to withdraw at this stage, I had not the advan- 

 tage of hearing an interesting paper which Mr. Howse read 

 afterwards " On the Carboniferous Hocks of Northumberland.'" 



The First Evening Meeting was held on the 19th of December. 



It is at these Evening Meetings that the contributions of the 

 Club to science, and signs of its real work, appear. Eeferring 

 to the meetings of last year there is no reason to look back on 

 them with dissatisfaction. At both meetings important papers, 

 containing matters of permanent value, were read, which would 

 do honour to any scientific society. As these will appear in 

 the published Transactions of the Club, it is unnecessary that I 

 should do more than enumerate them. But I may refer more 

 particularly, as examples, to Mr. Atthey's exhaustive papers and 

 beautifully prepared illustrative specimens of fish and reptilian 

 remains, from the shales of the Low-Main seam at Newsham 

 and Cramlington, both valuable contributions to Palseontology, 

 the latter being the first authenticated instance of reptile remains 

 derived from the Northern Coal Field; and to Mr. G-. S. Brady's 

 paper on the Fauna of some neighbouring salt-marshes, the 

 bearing of the facts stated in v>^hich, on the question of the 

 duration of species under altered conditions of living, and on 

 some difiiculties as to the mode of the deposition of some coal- 

 beds, is obvious and important. 



The titles of the papers read were as follows : — 



At the First Meeting — 



1. "Remarks on some Fish Remains obtained from the North- 

 umberland Coal Field,''' by Thomas Atthey. 



2. " On the Climatology and Physical Geography of Northum- 

 berland and Durham {being chapters introducing a new Flora of 

 the two Counties),'" by John G. Baker, F.L.S. 



At the Second Meeting — 



1. " On the Crustacean Fauna of the Salt-Marshes of North- 

 umberland and Durham," by G. S. Brady, with an appendix " On 

 the Foraminifera," by H. B. Brady, F.L.S. 



