September, 19 ro. The Irish Naturalist, 157 



IRISH FIELD CLUB UNION. 



REPORT OF THE 



SIXTH TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE AND EXCURSION 



HELD AT ROSAPENNA, JUEY 8th to 13TH, 1910. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT. 



BY R. I,I,OYD PRAEGKR, 

 Hon. Secretary, Irish Field Club Union. 



The Sixth Triennial Conference and Excursion of the 

 Naturalists* Field Clubs of Ireland was held at Rosapenna, 

 in Co. Donegal, on July 8th-i3th, 19 10. Twice had the Clubs 

 met previousl}' in Connaught — at Galwa}- in 1895, and at 

 SHgo in 1904 ; twice in Munster — at Kenmare in 1898, and 

 at Cork in 1907; once in I^einster — at Dublin in 1901; the 

 present was the first meeting in Ulster, the home of the 

 premier IrivSh Field Club. The Rosapenna Hotel, now one of 

 the largest and best managed hotels in Ireland, lying among 

 the Carrigart sand-dunes, with the interesting promontory of 

 Rosguill adjoining on the north, a great area of mountains 

 and lakes stretching to the south, and the placid waters of 

 Sheep Haven and Mulroy extending on either hand, was an 

 ideal centre for a meeting such as the present. In ever}- 

 direction lay wild unexplored ground — unexplored, that is, as 

 regards many groups of plants and animals. The Phanerogams 

 were already well known, having been long since worked otit, 

 and published by H. C Hart in his " Flora of Donegal." For 

 other groups of plants, the district was almost entirely un- 

 explored. As regards its fauna, all the vertebrates were, of 

 course, tolerably well known. Among the invertebrates, the 

 marine Mollusca had been collected by Hart, and the non- 

 marine groups had recently been very well worked by Messrs. 

 Welch, Stelfox, and some English friends. But in all other 

 groups there was plenty of room for further work, and many 

 large sections of the fauna w^ere entirely untouched. The 

 visit arranged to Tory Island, of which the Phanerogams alone 

 had been worked out, was especially looked forward to. 

 There was in all directions ^the prospect of an interesting 



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