Belfast Museum. 333 



son introduced ; and no money will be taken for the admission 

 of visitors at the door." As the same regulation obtains at 

 Norwich as at Manchester, there may be some necessity for 

 it, which those familiar with the actual working of either 

 Society best know of. The committee congratulate the sub- 

 scribers, " not only on the increase of their finances, but on 

 a much more important circumstance, the growing interest 

 which has been evinced by the public in promoting the 

 Society's objects, and the more general diffusion of a taste for 

 scientific pursuits." The committee have, during the winter 

 months of the past year, been enabled to establish a series of 

 conversazioni, which have materially promoted the Society's 

 objects. The thanks of the meeting were accorded to J. D. 

 Salmon, Esq., Thetford, Norfolk, and the election of him as 

 an honorary member, " for the valuable services which he had 

 rendered the Institution in the arrangement of the oological 

 department, not only in a scientific but most elegant manner, 

 besides giving a very extensive collection of eggs." The Re- 

 port includes M A list of donations and specimens presented 

 to the museum since the last annual general meeting." 



Belfast Museum. — The sixth public meeting of the Natural 

 History Society, for this session, was held in the museum, on 

 the evening of March 9. A lecture was delivered by Mr. 

 James Bryce, Jun., M.A. (of the Belfast Academy), 



On the Mineral Resources of the North of Ireland. — It was 

 stated, that the subject was then chosen on account of the 

 importance of having the extent of our resources known, in 

 connexion with the great public works that are contemplated, 

 and the increasing trade and manufactures of the country. In 

 the course of the lecture, a description of the Dungannon 

 coal-field was given, in some detail, as it is the only one which 

 can be of lasting importance to the country : the probability 

 of the future transport of this coal to Belfast was discussed. 

 Mr. Bryce then gave it as his opinion that no coal exists under 

 the freestone of the valley of the Lagan, and the adjacent dis- 

 tricts ; while he confessed that the borings hitherto undertaken 

 by landed proprietors were made precisely at those places 

 where, of all others, coal was least to be expected. Beds of 

 coal, of very good quality, easily worked, though, probably, 

 of no very great extent, were stated to exist about 40 miles 

 from Belfast, and within a few hundred yards of the sea shore. 

 The Dungannon fire clays and potteries, and a few of the 

 localities of the metallic ores in the North of Ireland, were 

 mentioned. The lecture concluded with directions to be ob- 

 served in searching for water, and an explanation of the cause 

 of the failure of the recent attempt, near the Poor- House, to 



