250 president's address. 



set on foot the Toteside Natttealists' Field Club ; and when 

 presenting to you the nsnal address of the retiring President 1 

 have thought, that in selecting a subject to which more especially 

 to direct my remarks, I could not do better than on the twentieth 

 anniversary of this Society to endeavour to lay before you a brief 

 account of its origin and progress, from its first establishment to 

 the present time. Such a review of the past will, I doubt not, 

 prove interesting ; and in looking back and seeing the advances 

 which have been already made, we shall find incentives to fresh 

 exertions to extend the operations and increase the usefulness of 

 the Society. 



The credit of originating the Tyneside Natubalists' Field 

 Club is, I believe, due to Mr. Ralph Carr (then of Dunston Hill, 

 now of Hedgeley). Mr. Carr believed rightly that a Club, similar 

 in character to that which had been a short time before established 

 in Berwickshire, might be successfully set on foot in Newcastle. 

 This gentleman, therefore, having first consulted with the Rev, 

 John F. Bigge and the Rev. R. C. Coxe (then Vicar of Newcastle, 

 subsequently Archdeacon of Lindisfarne), made the proposal to 

 establish the Club to a few of the Newcastle Naturalists. The 

 result was that a committee was formed, consisting of Mr. Alder, 

 Mr. Loftus, Mr. Fryer, and the gentlemen already named, for 

 the purpose of drawing up rules. That done, the first meeting 

 of the Club was held in the rooms of the Natural History Society 

 of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the 

 25th of April, 1846. At this meeting the Club was established, 

 the rules agreed to, and the following officers for the ensuing- 

 year were elected — Mi*. Carr, President; the Rev. John F. 

 Bigge, Vice-President ; Mr. John Thomhill, Secretary ; and 

 Messrs. Fryer, Alder, and Loftus, Committee. A secoud general 

 meeting of the Club was called on the 11th of May, in order to 

 pass rules relating to the publication of lists of the natural pro- 

 ductions of the two counties, and to elect committees to whom 

 the preparation f the several lists should be entrusted. The 

 Club was now fairly launched and afloat, and the volumes of 

 Transactions published from that time to this tell us how it has 

 flourished. I have drawn up a table which I lay before you, 



