44 



Malthusian and Darwinite lines of reasoning there ought to be 

 some special agencies provided for the purpose of hindering the 

 pollen doing the work for which it has been created. 



Which, I would ask, is the preferable mode of looking at all this ? 

 To start with the fact of a generous bountiful arrangement for the 

 continuance of life in its varied forms, and then to check it all by 

 an arrangement in which 



Nature, red in tooth and claw 

 With ravine 

 does her utmost to nulHfy it ; or to take the fact of the risks to 

 which all forms of life are subject, and then to look back to the 

 same bountiful provisions by which the full powers of evil are 

 averted ? In the one case apparent cruelty is evoked to interfere 

 with a beneficent arrangement ; in the other the destructive 

 agencies are foiled. I do not enter now at all upon the question 

 of apparent cruelty in nature, as evidenced by destructive agencies, 

 why they are here, or whether the cruelty is real, or kfhdiiess in 

 disguise, I am taking facts as they are, and propounding a method 

 of looking at them different to that which so many Darwinians put 

 before us. And here I leave them. 



I wish in conclusion to remind you once again that I have not 

 been arguing at all against the Darwinian Theory, which as I have 

 said may be true or false, regardless of Malthusianism ; but only 

 against an incorrect method of arguing which is very common, and 

 which when detected, shows discredit on a theory which may be 

 otherwise sound. 



At the close of the reading, a few remarks were made by the Rev. 

 A. H, Duke, the Eev. Mr. Bamber, Mr. Smurthwaite, and others, 

 and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to Mr. Ullyett. 



Saturday, June 26th, 1886. 



Members went by train to the Warren, but the attendance was 

 small. 



The following paper, well illustrated by diagrams and specimens, 

 was read by G. 0. Walton, Esq., P.L.S., on 



SOME OP THE COMMON OBJECTS OF OUR SHORE. 



Certainly the most conspicuous objects of our shore are the large 

 olive-brown seaweeds called kelpweeds, and these, though they 

 lack the delicacy and beauty of many of the red species, yet claim 

 our attention on account of their value. Before the adoption of the 

 modem chemical process, carbonate of soda was extracted from 



