president's addeess. 491 



ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE TYNESIDE 

 NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB, 



READ BY THE PRESIDENT, THE REV. R. P. WHEELER, M.A., AT THE 

 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING, HELD IN THE MUSEUM 

 OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, ON 

 THURSDAY, APRIL 7th, 1870. 



I MUST confess to a feeling of great difficulty and diffidence in 

 approaching the task of preparing the annual address, which, as 

 your President, it is my duty to deliver. If I felt twelve months 

 ago that I was unworthy of the high and distinguished position 

 to which you then so kindly elected me, my experience during 

 the year of office has deepened very much that feeling. Sadly 

 and most imperfectly has my work been done, though my in- 

 tentions have been of the best ; and I feel that I shall need the 

 same kind forbearance which I have hitherto experienced even 

 in this the last act of my year of office. 



Every year, indeed, the task which falls to your President 

 becomes one of increasing difficulty. Our rules require that the 

 retiring President should give a resume of the year's work, in- 

 cluding the Field Meetings. In past years this was a task com- 

 paratively easy. Then our summer gatherings were always 



"To fresh woods and pastures new." 



There was an interest in those pleasant walks which time and 

 repetition render it impossible to reproduce. Then, too, the 

 admirable addresses already given by my predecessors, in which 

 every locality visited by us this year is described with an ability 

 to which I can make no approach, increased the difficulty tenfold. 

 Commencing my review of the year's proceedings with these 

 impressions, I cannot but express my thankfulness at the pros- 

 perity and usefulness which have for so many years marked the 

 course of the Club, and which have been at least an equally satis- 

 factory feature of the history of the past year. 



Our numbers are now larger than at any former period. Our 

 finances are in a satisfactory state. And I believe that the real 

 work of the Club has made good progress during the year. 



