524 president's address. 



meetings, during my term of office, with such observations upon 

 them as occurred to me. 



We all recognise and approve of the preservation of all nature's 

 works, animate and inanimate ; my predecessors in this chair 

 have frequently alluded to and enforced it, and it is gratifying 

 to have ground for believing, that in the North of England, there 

 is not so much destruction of small birds by — I must call them — 

 Cockney sportsmen — as in some other parts. 



But there is a lamentable amount of destruction going on 

 wholesale, incessantly, and increasingly, by our manufactures — 

 I speak not at this time of the fish of our rivers — but of much 

 that is beautiful of the vegetable creation ; a destruction that can 

 never be repaired. We can only lament and remember the 

 beautiful denes and hanging woods, or the handsome single trees 

 that were, but are not. 



Many have gone, many are going ; poisoned gradually by the 

 smoke, or more suddenly by the chemical fumes from our manu- 

 factories. 



But they are not all yet gone ; and I would venture to suggest, 

 what has before been mentioned by some of my predecessors, 

 that a descriptive record be made in our Transactions, of the 

 most remarkable individual trees of the district ; and also (which 

 I think would add much to the value of the record, as well as to 

 the popularity of the Transactions), that all remarkable trees be 

 photographed on a uniform and convenient scale, and the photo- 

 graphs published with the record. 



Since our last Annual Meeting, one of our most industrious 

 and scientific members has been taken from among us, of whom 

 we have now to mourn the loss. "Nature" thus justly speaks 

 of him (Vol. IV., p. 387):— 



" We regret to record the death at Seaham Harbour, on 

 September the 17th, 1871, after a short illness, at the age of 

 thirty-eight, of Mr. George Hodge, an accomplished naturalist. 

 Although, from his retiring and unassuming disposition, little 

 known beyond the naturalist circle of the north, George Hodge 

 realised, as few do realise, the objects of a local naturalist. 

 Living on a portion of the north-east coast, the marine fauna of 



