1 58 The Irish Nahna/ist. September, 



harvest, and it is therefore to be regretted that, as at the Cork 

 Conference, the working members were so few. But those 

 who were present strove, by strenuous collecting of many 

 groups, to redeem the absence of their colleagues. 



The party numbered 47 all told — precisely the same number 

 as at Cork three years previousl}^ ; about two-thirds of these 

 were of the Belfast Club, the remainder being members of the 

 Dublin Club, with three from Umerick ; the Cork andOmagh 

 Clubs were without a representative, and there was an absence, 

 which all regretted, of anj^ of the English zoologists who have 

 on many occasions joined the Conference parties. 



Perfect weather favoured the meeting. The good luck of 

 the Conferences in regard to weather is now proverbial. 

 During the six meetings that have been held, each lasting 

 a week, no excursion has ever been abandoned or curtailed 

 owing to rain ; a heavy shower on the Aran Islands, and 

 another at I^ough Gill, represent the worst charges that our 

 parties can bring against the weather. On the present 

 occasion conditions were more favourable than ever; follow- 

 ing on several weeks of very broken weather, no drop of rain 

 fell duiing the period of the meeting, neither was it on an)' 

 day unpleasantl)' hot. The sea-fog which prevailed during 

 the visit to Tor}', while obscuring some ver}' fine and in- 

 teresting views, did not interfere with work, and was the 

 means of providing members with an amusing experience, 

 unique in the annals of Field Club work in Ireland — of which 

 more anon. 



The arrangements for the meeting were made b}' R. Welch 

 and A. W. Stelfox, respectively President and Secretar}' of 

 the Belfast Club ; and — barring the experience just referred 

 to — the time-table was carried out without a hitch or a dela}'. 



On July 7 the Limerick and Dublin contingents travelled 

 to Belfast, spending the night in the Kelvin Hotel, destined 

 to be the scene of a disastrous and fatal fire a few daj-s after 

 their visit. Some members who arrived in the afternoon 

 found time to explore the geology of the Cave Hill and other 

 classic Belfast hunting-grounds. 



Friday, Jui.y 8. 

 The combined party assembled at the Great Northern Rail- 

 way, Belfast, and took the 7.30 train for the north. Joined at 

 Portadown by some members, they changed at Strabane to 



