Anniversary Address. 23 



obstructs the fishing, in consequence of which it is cut four 

 times a year. A quantity of silt accumulates wherever the 

 plant becomes established ; and thereby places that once had 

 a firm bottom are rendered treacherous and uncertain. 

 Horses are very fond of it for food, and wade into the water 

 as deep as the neck to feed on the plant. 



Returning to England, the party made for Horncliffe 

 House, the beautiful residence of Mr Thomas Allan, by 

 whom they were most hospitably entertained at dinner. 

 The following papers were either read, or received for inser- 

 tion in the Club's Proceedings : — 1. Vindication of Bishop 

 Bek's disposition of Alnwick barony, by the Rev. Canon 

 Procter, Doddington ; 2. On ancient Fishwick, by Mr 

 Hardy ; 3. On Horncliffe, by the same ; 4. On the appear- 

 ance of large numbers of the Manks Shearwater in the 

 Frith of Forth, and the Ornithology of the Isle of May, by 

 Mr Robert Gray. Some rare plants were exhibited. Mr 

 Edward Allen showed some extraordinary long and densely 

 fibrous rootlets of ash, which had penetrated and choked the 

 water pipes at Alnwick. Mr J. B. Kerr exhibited an inter- 

 esting collection of plants and other curiosities from Kergue- 

 len's land and Magellan Straits, which had been sent by Dr 

 Alexander Crosbie, of H.M.S. " Challenger." A feature in 

 the collection was the night butterfly caterpillar, the Arveto 

 or Hotote of the Maories of New Zealand. The eggs are de- 

 posited in the wood of the hardest trees (iron-wood), and are 

 hatched. The caterpillars on attaining maturity leave the 

 wood, and bury themselves in the earth, previous to changing 

 into the chrysalis state. The specimens were affected by the 

 fcphcerii Robertsiu, which grows from the anterior end. 

 The natives eat the caterpillar, which is that of a moth, 

 Charagria virescens. 



The following new members were proposed : — Mr William 

 Lyall, Librarian of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 Newcastle ; William Topley, F.G.S.. Government Geological 

 Surveyor of Northumberland. Alnwick ; Hubert E. W. Jer- 

 ningham, Esq., of Longridge Towers ; Dr Alexander Crosbie, 



