1923. Irish Societies, 93 



received with deep regret, was unanimously elected an honorary member 

 of the Club. C. B. Moffat read a paper on the study of wild plants (sinc,e 

 printed in this Journal, pp. 21-7). 



February 8.— C> B. Moffat in the Chair. The Vice-President (J, de W. 

 Hindi) opened a discussion on Professor Wegener's theory of the causes of 

 the present distribution of land and water, illustrating with the help of a 

 series of diagrams and maps the nature of the movements that are supposed 

 to have taken place. The discussion was continued by A. W., Stelfox, 

 R. LI. Praeger, and others, and the general sense of the meeting seemed 

 favourable to the acceptance of Professor Wegener's view. 



March 8. — The President in the Chair. A paper of exceptional interest, 

 illustrated with many excellent lantern-slides, was read by Miss Gilmorc, 

 B.Sc, on the Coal-Bore at Washing Bay, Lough Neagh — a paper which 

 showed that the costly boring operations, though unsuccessful as regards 

 their direct objective, had yielded results of an extraordinary value from 

 the palaeobotanical point of view, while revealing a depth of clay (1,196 

 feet) before the basalt was reached that entirely confounded previous 

 speculations. Messrs. Hinch, Praeger, Stelfox and others discussed the 

 subject and joined in thanking Miss Gilmore for her paper. 



April 2. — The President in the Chair. The winter session closed with 

 an address delivered by Mr. Gorman on " Some Fungus Galls." The 

 lecturer, who showed a series of interesting slides, pointed out the various 

 ways in which fungi obtain their food, and the diversity of the effects 

 produced on the living organisms that many of them select as their hosts. 

 Among the gall-formations shown, the conspicuous " witch knots " so 

 often seen on the Birch, Silver-Fir, Lime and other trees excited a special 

 interest. Discussion was limited to the asking of a number of questions, 

 to which the lecturer replied. 



May 5. — Excursion to Kilbride Valley and Ballinascorney Gap.- — 

 Taking the steam tram to Brittas a party of about 20 members and visitors 

 walked through the Kilbride Valley, and crossing Ballinascorney Gap 

 descended into Glenasmole The chief concern of the excursion was an 

 examination of the mounds and sheets of gravelly drift which are strongly 

 developed in this area and the main features of which were pointed out 

 by the Conductor, J. de W. Hinch, who also explained the geological 

 conditions which led to their origin. In late Glacial times a series of lakes 

 of considerable extent had been formed along the eastern, northern, and 

 western flanks of the Dublin and Wicklow hills, caused by the 

 impounding of the drainage between the mountain slopes and the edges 

 of the retreating ice-sheet. Into these lakes debris derived from the 

 boulder clay on the mountain side and from the moraine material 

 contained in the waning ice-sheet was deposited and spread out in sheets 

 along the edges of the lakes. The composition of the gravels shows 

 clearly the mingling of materials derived from very different sources, and 

 pebbles of Chalk, Ailsa Craig rock, chalk flints, and shell fragments from 

 the north are mixed with Leinster granite and Carboniferous limestone 

 from the immediate neighbourhood. The system of overflow channels, 

 represented at the present time by the " dry gaps " of the Dublin and 



