Report of Meetings. By the President. 481 



Transactions in combination with the Tyneside Naturalists' 

 Field Club. 



4. The Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. Membership upwards 

 of 600. 



Our Secretary, Mr Hardy, was one of its first members and 

 was present at its institution on the 15th April, in 1846. Several 

 of our members are connected with all four institutions. 



THE MUSEUM. 



The project of erecting a new building for the large collection 

 of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, originated with Mr John Hancock, and 

 has been carried out under his direction. 



The Society is also indebted to him for the splendid collection 

 of British and other birds formed by himself, and presented by 

 him to the Museum. The setting up of these birds is the work 

 of his own hands, and whether they be regarded in a scientific 

 or an artistic point of view, they are equally unrivalled. 



The Society has also received, from time to time, various 

 important gifts which render its collections in other branches of 

 natural history exceedingly complete. The geological depart- 

 ment is remarkably rich in the fossils of the Coal-measures, and 

 of the adjacent formations, audit is especially distinguished by 

 a unique collection of coal-measure fishes and amphibia, worked 

 out of the black shale of the Low Main seam of this district with 

 great skill and discrimination by the late Mr Thomas Atthey. 

 This valuable collection was secured and presented to the Society 

 by Lady Armstrong. 



The Society has also been presented with a valuable collection 

 of original drawings by Thomas Bewick, the celebrated wood 

 engraver, who was a native of this district ; also of original por- 

 traits of this artist, and a fine series of early impressions from 

 his blocks. These have been presented to the Society by J. W. 

 Barnes, Esq., and Joseph Crawhall, Esq., the executors of his 

 last surviving daughter, Miss Isabella Bewick, under a power 

 contained in her will. These Bewick relics are arranged in the 

 gallery of the first room. The large room over the entrance hall 

 is designed for a Library of Works on Natural History ; and a 

 considerable number of books on this subject have already been 

 bequeathed to the Society. 



The New Building, when furnished, will cost £42,000. Of 



2h 



