26 PRESIDENTIAL ADDEESS, 



found the view very bleak and desolate. After sheltering from 

 some showers they drove down to Allendale Town to join the 

 members who had by an early train arrived from I^ewcastle. 



The Last Field Meeting was held at Marsden, on Friday, 

 October 4th. The members proceeded from the Central Station 

 by the eleven o'clock train for Cleadon Lane, where the number 

 of the party was increased by the addition of a few members 

 from Sunderland. The weather was fine and all that could be 

 expected for a late autumnal day, and the walk through the 

 fields by way of Cleadon to Whitburn was much enjoyed, 

 although few wild flowers were left to interest those botanically 

 inclined. After leisurely walking to Whitburu, and a short 

 survey of that neatly -kept and attractive seaside village, most 

 of the party partook of slight refreshment in one of the neigh- 

 bouring inns. The party now became scattered, some preferring 

 the straight road to Marsden, and others the more circuitous 

 route by the sea coast. A short examination was made of a 

 portion of the cliff near Whitburn, where the Conglobated or 

 Ball-Limestone occurs in the coast section, and it was intended 

 to read at this place, and with this peculiar structure of the 

 Magnesian Limestone in view, a short note suggesting the man- 

 ner in which these globular concretions have been formed ; but 

 as only two or three members were present the reading of the 

 note was deferred till the party had reassembled at Marsden 

 Grotto. 



During the last twenty years enormous changes have taken 

 place on the sea coast between "Whitburn and Marsden. The 

 unavoidable requirements of trade and commerce have done and 

 are still doing much to destroy the natural features and the 

 lonely beauty of this part of the Durham coast. Not its wild- 

 ness only but some of its almost unique physical and lithological 

 features have entirely disappeared. The extensive quarrying 

 carried on by the Whitburn Coal Company has been, unfortu- 

 nately, the means of destroying the only habitats left in the 

 county of a few of our rarer plants. Spircea flli/penAula, the 

 Bee Orchis, and Orchis pyramidalis arc now entirely eradicated 



