PROCEEDINGS 



BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS' CLUB, 



Addi^ess delivered to the BeriuiclMhire Naturalists' Club 

 at Berwick, lUh October 1896. By J. Ferguson, 

 F.S.A. Scot., Duns, President. 



In retiring from the Presidential chair, to which 

 you were pleased to call me at last annual meeting, 

 my first word must be one of grateful acknowledgment 

 for the honour conferred upon me. I am deeply sensible 

 of your generosity in having invited me to occupy such a 

 position, and however conscious I may also be of the man}^ 

 shortcomings which have marked my tenure of the office, 

 it will always be a source of unalloyed pleasure to call 

 to mind the loyal co-operation and support extended 

 to me on all hands. Old friends in the Club, and 

 others with whom I have been more recently brought 

 into contact at our meetings, have combined for my 

 encouragement and help in a manner for which the 

 warmest thanks I can offer must form an inadequate 

 return. And no words of mine can sufficiently express 

 my obligations to the officials of the Club — our Treasurer, 

 Mr Middlemas, who, I regret to think, appears among 

 us to-day for the last time in his official capacity, and 

 especially our learned and venerable Secretary, whose 

 aid has so greatly lightened the burden of office. To 

 have been associated, even for a brief period, with an 

 intellect so keen, so wide in outlook, and so fully equipped 



B.N. C— VOL. XVI. NO. I. B 



