Reports of Societies. 



15 



tances. The chairman read an interesting commiinication from the Rev. 

 J. Challoner, relative mainly to ornithology, and specially to a duck of 

 his that had recently assumed the plumage and colouring of a drake — a 

 mallard ; an occurrence almost unique, or at least much rarer than the 

 contrary change. He also drew attention to the fact that seams of copper 

 had been found in a quarry near Newton, haematite iron at CoUingham, 

 and some curious elliptic-ovoid stones (pyritic '?) in the bed of the Wharfe 

 at Woodhall. On the motion of JVIr. Roebuck, seconded by Mr. Clarke, 

 the fungus foray contemplated for next October was postponed indefi- 

 nitely, after various expressions of regret, and a suggestion from Mr. 

 Cheesman that the Market- Weighton field day be given up instead, on an 

 explanation by Mr, Roebuck that funds were insufiicient for the purpose 

 of a seventh (supplementary) and more-than-ordinarily costly meeting, 

 unless indeed the " Transactions " (which it is the grand feature of the 

 Union to furnish the subscribers with yearly) were to be curtailed — a 

 very undesirable alternative . The next business on the paper concerned 

 the memorial address to Dr. Charles Darwin, F.R.S., proposed and 

 carried at the Malton meeting, and to draw up which a sub-committee 

 was then and there appointed. A draft drawn up by hmiself, Prof. 

 Williamson, and Mr. J. W. Davis, was then read by ]\Ir. Thomas Hick, 

 B.A., B. Sc., and presented to the meeting for endorsement. Its 

 adoption was proposed by Mr. Slater, and seconded by Mr. West. An 

 amendment proposing to postpone consideration of the question, on the 

 ground of the meeting being a small and therefore somewhat unrepre- 

 sentative one, was lost upon a point of order, the Malton meeting having 

 decided unanimously that an address should be presented. An amend- 

 ment involving a rejection of the draft, was next moved by Mr. Emmet, 

 seconded by Mr. Gill, and supported by the Rev. W. Fowler, M.A., 

 mainly upon the objection that, whilst all members of the Union must 

 necessarily have the highest admiration of Dr. Darwin's talents as a 

 naturalist, some of them could not accept his conclusions as regarded his 

 evolution " theory ; and, further, that to present a complimentary 

 address to any one for such a' special work as the Origin of Species," 

 involving acceptance of the teachings formulated^ was beyond the province 

 of a Union composed of working JSTaturalists holding diverse opinions, 

 bonded together for a specific purpose alone, viz.— the investigation of 

 facts in local Natural History. With respect to whether or not the 

 adoption of the address pledged the Union to endorsement of the 

 Darwinian view of bio-genesis, &c., the Rev. W. Fowler, M.A., remarked 

 that he freely admitted the felicitous wording and altogether admirable 

 character of the address, viewed from the standpoint of those who 

 beheved in the doctrine enunciated by Dr. Darwin ; but that he, for one, 

 dissented wholly from the conclusions of which he held the address 

 approved by its eulogy ; and to congratulate an author on the fact of a 

 certain work having attained its majority, and placed its argument on a 

 permanent scientific basis — if that basis were dissented from — seemed but 



