390 Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, by J. Hardy. 



an intimation be inserted in the Circular calling the first meeting 

 next year, requesting members to be careful whom they pro- 

 posed, and to be assured that they intended to work for and 

 favour the interests of the Club ; and this proposal was accord- 

 ingly acted upon. 



The following places were selected to hold meetings at during 

 the year 1878 : — Chirnside and Blackadder, May 15 ; Wooler 

 and Yeavering Bell, June 26 ; Cockburnspath and Oldhamstocks, 

 July 31 ; Embleton, August 28 ; Galashiels, Clovenfords, &c, 

 September 25 ; Berwick, October 16. 



The first meeting for 1878 was held at Chirnside, for Black- 

 adder and Allanbank, on Wednesday, May 15th. There were 

 present — Mr Hardy, Secretary ; Sir Walter Elliot of Wolfelee ; 

 Sheriff Eussell, Jedburgh ; Capt. Norman, E.N., Berwick ; Eevs. 

 J. F. Bigge, Stamfordham ; Evan Eutter, Spittal ; E. F. Proud- 

 foot, Fogo ; Drs Charles Stuart, Chirnside ; Henry Eichardson, 

 E.N., Berwick ; Messrs Thomas Allan, Horncliffe House : Edw. 

 Allen, Alnwick ; W. B. Boyd, Ormiston House ; Thos. Chartres, 

 Ayton ; J. S. Dudgeon, Longnewton Place ; — Fenwick, Spittal ; 

 J. IS. Friar, Grin don Eidge ; George Muirhead, Paxton ; James 

 Purves, Berwick-; and Charles Watson, Dunse. 



Under the disadvantage of a succession of thunder showers, 

 the Club managed to carry out a considerable part of its pro- 

 gramme. After breakfast at Chirnside the way was taken for 

 the paper-mill at Chirnside Bridge. Here the particular pro- 

 cesses in paper-making were pointed out, from the sorting of the 

 initial rude material as Nature produced it, till it appeared, after 

 a lengthened circuit of preparatory changes, as an entire web of 

 paper, which was then cut into sizes, folded, and placed in stock. 

 The article employed here, along with a small per-centage of 

 rags, is the Esparto grass, Stipa tenacissima. Livy mentions the 

 Spar turn in his twenty-second . book, chapter 20th, when the 

 Eomans, under Scipio, having landed from their fleet on the east 

 coast of Hispania, attacked and defeated Hasdrubal, and burned 

 a large quantity of Spartum, which he had collected for the naval 

 service of the Carthaginians, to be used as cordage.* Pliny 



* Inde jam prseda gravis ad Longunticam pervenit classis : ubi vis magna 

 Sparti ad rem nauticam congesta ab Hasdrubale. Quod satis in usum fuit, 

 sublato, ceterum omne incensum est. -- Valpy's edition of Livy, vol. iii., p. 

 1805 ; compared with Euddiman's. 



