president's addeess. 163 



circles round us wildly screaming, returning immediately to the 

 nest after we had left the spot. 



The nest morning, though the night had been very wet, and 

 the weather showery, we all started immediately after breakfast 

 for Langdon Beck. Heavy showers fell occasionally, but did not 

 prevent some members of our party from the determination which 

 they had made to see Caldron Snout by way of Falcon Glints, 

 a difficult road in wet weather. Others lagged behind gathering 

 strange flowers in pastures new. Sedum villosum and Primula 

 farinosa were seen in great perfection, and further on Tofieldia 

 palustris and BarUia alpina in full flower. A young Plover and 

 three nests of the Meadow Pipit with eggs now attracted atten- 

 tion, and also the wonderfully wild crags and scenery of this 

 uniqiie locality, so far as the county of Durham is concerned, 

 where Cronkley Scar, 



" Prominent above the rest 

 Rear'd to the sun its pale grey breast, 

 Under its broken summit grew 

 The Rowan Ash and sable Yew ; 

 A thousand varied lichens dyed 

 Its waste and weather-beaten side, 

 And round its rugged basis lay, 

 By time and thunder rent away, 

 Fragments that from its frontlet torn 

 Were mantled now by birk and thorn." 



Following the course of a small burn, the special plant of the 

 district, now out of flower, was observed; also specimens of 

 Tofieldia palustris, Saxifraga a%oides, and the Buckbean. On 

 some of the adjoining pastures the flowers of Conopsea albida and 

 Selianthemum were gathered, and by the side of Harwood Beck, 

 almost its highest station in the valley, the Fotentilla fruticosa 

 was observed, but not yet in flower. Crossing as best we could 

 the foot of Harwood Beck we came upon a fine mass of basaltic 

 rock, underlying a thick bed of drift, very distinctly glaciated. 

 This seems to form a part of the same bed which we observed 

 strongly glaciated at different places on our way up to the turn- 

 pike road, on both sides of which the glaciation is very strong 



