308 ANNUAL REPORT.
Meetings.—Eleven meetings (including the Annual Meeting) were held
during the year, which, as usual, have been very fully reported in our
Journal. In connection with these meetings the Council has great pleasure
in recording the thanks of the Club to those who aided in various ways.
Amongst others the following should be specially mentioned :—Prof. Watts and
Mr. J. V. Holmes, lantern demonstration of photographs of geological interest
at the meeting on January 28th, 1899 ; Mr. J. J. Vezey, Treasurer of the
Quekett Microscopical Club, and Mr. D. J. Scourfield, to whom the Club
was indebted for an excellent lantern demonstration of the Pond-life in
Epping Forest, on February 25th ; Mr. Fredk. Enock, F.L.S., for one of his
graphic and original lantern lectures, "The Life-history of the Tiger-beetle"
at the meeting on March 25th ; on April 22nd Mr. and Mrs. E. N. Buxton
most kindly entertained the Club to a garden party at "Knighton" ; on June
15th we had again to thank Major Flower and the Lee Conservancy Board
for the loan of the "Salisbury" for the voyage on the Lea from Hertford
to Waltham Abbey ; on that occasion also we were indebted to Mr. Corbie,
the Clerk to the Conservancy, for 50 copies of the pamphlet "Walton's
Favourite River" for distribution on board, and to Mr. Mark Davies for
notes on angling in the river ; to Mr. Winstone for an account of Rye
House, to Mr. Holmes for notes on the topography of the Lea, and to
Mr. W. M. Webb for demonstration of the river and river-side mollusca.
On June 24th a meeting was held at Charlton, Kent, to meet the members of
the Croydon Natural History Society, when Dr. F. Parsons and Mr. N. F.
Robarts were conductors. At the meeting at Fowlness on July 22nd, Mr.
W. H. Dalton gave his services, and members of the Club were kindly enter-
tained at "afternoon tea" by the Rector, the Rev. R. H. Marsh. At the
Annual Cryptogamic Meeting we had the assistance of Dr. Cooke, Mr. Massee
and Prof. Boulger. Mr. Rudler kindly gave a demonstration at the Museum
of Practical Geology on December 16th, so ending the sessional meetings.
The Council acknowledges again with gratitude the facilities given by
the Technical Instruction Committee of the Borough of West Ham and by
Mr. Briscoe, the Principal, for the meetings in rooms in the Institute. Most
unfortunately our winter meetings were interrupted by the disastrous fire
which occurred at the Institute on October 23rd, 1899. This sad event
diminished the number of our meetings, and much upset arrangements in
other ways.
The advantages of a commodious and fixed assembling room for the
winter session has been forcibly emphasised by the experiences of shifting the
meeting places during the last few years. With the new museum and library,
the rooms in the Technical Institute will furnish facilities that the Club has
never before possessed. As announced in one of the circulars to the members
the object the Council has in view is to resume the old plan of Winter
Meetings at fixed dates, with the Institute Museum and Library as the
rendezvous.
It is by no means intended that Winter Meetings should not be held
occasionally in other centres ; the meetings at the Institute will be fixed ones,
while those held elsewhere will be announced from time to time by Special
Circular, as Field Meetings are advertised.