pkesident's addeess. 169 



Mr. Howse's narrative of the visit to the Eass, and his remarks 

 on the various objects of interest relating to the excursion, was 

 fortunately not very short, and was heard with much interest, 

 recording what was seen and discoursing pleasantly of that very 

 interesting locality and its inhabitants. Mr. Green's observations 

 on fish in the Ouseburn shews what an amount of filth a fish can 

 put up with for a time ! On the subject of Mr. Johnson's com- 

 munication I have not much knowledge, but have many and 

 many a time admired the beautiful and harmonious colours given 

 to old walls and crags and rocks by the infinite variety of the 

 tints of the various Lichens, especially when our travels lead us 

 to where the atmosphere is unadulterated and moisture abounds. 



Referring to the remark I have just made about the geological 

 and picturesque features of our coast between the mouth of the 

 Tyne and Whitburn, would it not still be possible to obtain 

 some such record by means of photography or otherwise, accom- 

 panied by geological diagrams and descriptive letterpress ? Would 

 it not facilitate its accomplishment if a Special Committee were 

 appointed to get it carried out ? and, if necessary, special sub- 

 scriptions might be asked for, as was done in the case of the 

 photographs of "Eemarkable Trees." If anything is to be done 

 there is no time to be lost. Many interesting features have al- 

 ready gone, and others are disappearing daily. 



Such is the record of our out-door meetings during a summer 

 which succeeded a winter, the last of a series of extreme severity. 

 Most of us have had occasion to note some of the effects of this 

 severity; for instance, the great extent to which the Common 

 Whin has been destroyed, the injury in many places to Shrubs, 

 and, as we saw at Bellingham, the destruction of the Lombardy 

 Poplars, some of which, from_ their size, had evidently stood a 

 good many years. The mortality amongst birds must have been 

 great, from the accounts we heard of the numbers found dead 

 about the coast and elsewhere. Great numbers of Partridges 

 were found in the hedges dead and in an emaciated condition. 

 In my own garden we had during the snowstorms quite a large 

 assemblage of birds, which came to the food wc supplied for them 



