1923. Irish Societies. 



49 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



February 20.- — S. A. Bennett, B.Sc, and R. Bell, V. Min. Soc, 

 read a paper on a lately discovered prehistoric site on the eastern slope 

 of the Black Mountain near Belfast, at about 800 feet elevation. A 

 large variety of flint flakes, with half-finished implements were found 

 here ; finished implements were rarer. The finds included scrapers, 

 hammer-stones, cores, and a leaf-shaped implement which Mr. Reginald 

 Smith considered to be of Proto-Solutrian type. 



April 13 (Diamond Jubilee Year). — The annual conversazione was 

 held in the Carlton Hall, Rev. W. R. Megaw, B.A., Newtownbreda, 

 President, being in the chair. An interesting exhibition of specimens 

 was on view. The most important exhibit was that of R. Bell, who showed 

 a series of very early types of worked flints from taluses of pre-historic 

 rock-shelters on the Black Mountain. The flints are similar to some 

 discovered in the Dordogne valley in France, and Grimes' Graves in 

 East Anglia. From the Public Museum came enlarged models of insec- 

 tivorous plants, showing how these are adapted to capture insects. 

 Specimens of Bulimus oblongns, a large land-shell from Trinidad, with 

 enormous white eggs, almost as big as the eggs of a pigeon, were also 

 shown. Among W. A. S. Stendall's exhibits were eggs of the Common 

 Guillemot, Ringed Plovers' eggs, an almost white Sparrow from Ballymena, 

 the first egg of the Fulmar ever taken in County Antrim, and a Little 

 Auk blown ashore at Rathhn Island. James Orr showed a series of exotic 

 cowrie shells. H. T. Malcomson had thirty-five different species of the 

 moths of Northern Ireland. Among the many exhibits of T. Edens 

 Osborne were Ushabti models of servants of deceased Egyptian notables 

 of the time of the Pharaohs. He also exhibited specimens from Scrabo 

 Hill of rain-pitted and ripple-marked Triassic sandstones. A. A. Campbell 

 showed a copy of the Belfast Mercantile Register of 1822, and a " News- 

 Letter " of 1804, as well as albums of excursion snapshots. R. J. Welch 

 had selected fresh-water mollusca from the Lagan valley and Lough 

 Neagh basin, with some xerophile or sun-loving species, including those 

 whose sudden appearance after a rain shower in dry weather, gives rise 

 to the idea in south and east England that it has rained snails. Rev. 

 W. R. Megaw exhibited mosses ; Miss Blackwood, Yorkshire plants ; 

 S. A. Bennett (Campbell College) had brought Carices of Down and 

 Antrim ; Captain Chase, plants from England, which are rare, if not 

 altogether absent from Ireland. A melancholy interest attached to Miss 

 N. Carrothers' group of plants from Magilligan. These had been collected 

 by the late W. J. C. Tomlinson. From the Botanical Department, Queen's 

 University, Professor Small had sent his American life plant, and exhibits 

 illustrating a new aid to propagation by cuttings. Miss M. J. Lynn, 

 M.Sc, collaborated. There were also variations in leaf form of Horn- 

 beam leaves, a tree which, it appears, is found near Belfast. Miss M. W. 

 Rea, M.Sc, showed Rosa (group Canina) from the collection of Rev. C. H. 

 Waddell. W. A. Green- — Carboniferous fossil shells and plants, in- 

 cluding some very perfect fossil ferns. A. MT. Cleland- — Specimens from 



