PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 245 



found in considerable quantity. Ultimately a committee, consist- 

 ing of Dr. Embleton, Rev. W. Greenwell, and Messrs. J. W. 

 Kirkby, Gr. S. Brady, and E. C. Robson, was appointed, with a 

 request that they would investigate the nature of the discoveries 

 already made, further explore the cave, and present a report 

 upon the subject to the Club. 



It was a beautiful autumnal evening as the members separated 

 and dispersed in all directions — some on foot, some in carriages, 

 some by train — to their respective homes. 



Thus ended our rambles of the year ; but we have not been 

 idle during the winter season. Three joint Evening Meetings 

 of the Naturae History Society oe Northumberland, Durham, 

 and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the Tyneside Naturalists' Eield 

 Club have been held, each of which was numerously attended. 

 Indeed, there is reason to think, that the room at present used 

 for these meetings will ere long be found to be wholly inadequate 

 to the purpose. 



The Eirst Evening Meeting took place in the Curator's Room 

 of the Natural History Society, on Thursday, the 2nd of Novem- 

 ber, when the following papers were read : — 



1. "On the Organi%ation and Alternate Generation of Salpa 

 spinosa (Otto) as observed in the Channel Islands, by the Rev. 

 A. M. Norman, M.A." 



I had the pleasure of discovering this highly interesting animal 

 in the British seas for the first time in August last. It was taken 

 in the towing net off Eemiain Bay, Guernsey ; and the aggregated 

 chains, the disconnected sexual individuals, and the dissimilar 

 asexual animals were all procured in considerable numbers. The 

 account given to the Club contained observations on the anatomy 

 and physiology of both sexual and asexual forms, partly confir- 

 matory of the accounts given by previous writers (especially 

 Huxley, Sars, and Krohn), and partly supplementary to, and 

 corrective of, their descriptions. I had the good fortune to. see 

 the asexual individuals within the body of the aggregated chain 

 animals, and also to witness the reproduction from the former of 

 the Salpa-chains. In one case I was able to watch the successive 



