156 KEPOET OF THE COMMITTEE. 



New Museum was proposed and planned by Mr. J. Hancock for 

 the reception of his unique collection of British Birds, and for 

 the over-crowded collections of the Old Museum. 



During the first years of the Society's existence an effort 

 was made to prepare a Geological Map of the district, and also 

 to establish a depository for Mining Records. As shewn in the 

 early quarto Transactions much was done in this direction, but 

 the falling off of influential members at an early date, and the 

 establishment in London of a Mining Record Office and a Geo- 

 logical Survey for the whole country, led to the abandonment of 

 these early aspirations, and the eventual forming of a Mining 

 Institute in Newcastle, for the publication of such papers on 

 mining subjects as were prepared by local gentlemen interested 

 in mines, deprived the Society of another of its local features ; 

 but there were left to it the objects originally contemplated, 

 namely, the encouragement of Natural History pursuits, the 

 formation of illustrative collections, and the publication of me- 

 moirs and catalogues of the natural productions of the district. 



How far then has the Society progressed in the accomplish- 

 ment of these, its primary objects, and what remains to be done 

 in the future ? 



In the early Transactions of the Society, issued in the years 

 1831 — 1838, there were published by members of the Society 

 Catalogues of the Birds, Land Mollusca, Plants, etc., of the two 

 Northern Counties, and a Catalogue of the Zoophytes of the 

 East Coast, and many valuable Memoirs on the Geology and 

 Mining History of these counties. 



These Transactions, with its Catalogues and Memoirs by Winch, 

 Hutton, Alder, Dr. G. Johnston, Atkinson, Buddie, Nicholas 

 "Wood, Witham, and others, obtained for Newcastle and its 

 Naturalists a status in the Scientific world, and a reputation 

 which has extended down to the present day. It was also during 

 this time that the "Fossil Flora" was published by Prof. Lindley 

 and Wm. Hutton, one of the first Secretaries of the Society. 

 This is the most extensive work that has yet been published on 

 this subject in England, and it will always be a valuable work 

 of reference on the Coal-measure Flora. About this time also 



