380 Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. 



London to form an acquaintance with those in other parts of 

 the empire, whence, after all, the ranks of science must be 

 recruited, and that was one reason why they were delighted 

 to visit such great cities as that in which they were then 

 assembled, where, he was sure, it was impossible not to feel 

 they had been received, not only as brothers, but as very 

 selves — (applause.) 



Thanks to the Commissioners of Northern Lights. 

 Dr Robinson of Armagh said, nearly in the following 

 terms, — I have been entrusted with a task which I accepted 

 very cheerfully, the more so as I was enabled to profit 

 by the opportunity, which my friend Professor Sedgwick 

 has told you he unfortunately missed. The Secretary has 

 been kind enough to entrust me with a vote of thanks 

 to be given by the British Association to the Commissioners 

 of the Northern Lights for the liberality with which they 

 placed their resources at the disposal of the Associa- 

 tion, especially on the occasion of the excursion to the 

 Bell Rock Lighthouse on Saturday last. To speak of the 

 kindness with which we were received — to speak of the 

 splendid hospitality with which we were entertained is 

 nothing here, for there is no individual nor public body who 

 has not heaped on us, even in profusion, this sort of kindness. 

 I take on myself this office with particular pleasure, because 

 of the excessive enjoyment which I, in common with about 

 fifty other members of the Association, derived from an ex- 

 cursion, in the course of which we were led to an object 

 which, almost from the days of my childhood, has engrossed 

 my attention, and which I have ever regarded as one of the 

 wonders of the world, of which we read and which we regard 

 with almost mythological idolatry — a thing in whose exist- 

 ence I believed, but of which I never had any very clear ex- 

 perience — I mean the Bell Rock Lighthouse.* When I 

 visited that marvellous, beautiful structure, rising up in 

 its strength and loneliness out of the deep, I found that 

 though the sea was calm and the wind was still, yet there 



* This dangerous rock was named " The Bell Rock," because in former times 

 mariners were warned from it by the lugubrious tones of a bell, tolled by the action 

 of the wave*. 



