86 The Irish Naturalist. April, 



and more in the direction of the worms. The field may now 

 be safely left to Prof. Sollas and Mr. Matthew, two dis- 

 tinguished observers in opposite hemispheres, whose work, 

 forming the basis of the present paper, is here gratefully 

 acknowledged. 1 

 Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



NOTES ON THE ALG^S OF LOUGH NEAGH. 



BY WM. WEST, F.L.S., AND G. S. WEST, B.A., A.R.CS. 

 (Provisional Report to the R.I. A. Fauna and Flora Committee). 



Last spring Mr. Praeger wrote to us on behalf of the Fauna 

 and Flora Committee of the Royal Irish Academy, inviting us 

 to undertake an examination of the aquatic flora of Lough 

 Neagh, and offering assistance in the shape of a grant of 

 money, and also the use of a steam launch, kindl} r placed at 

 the disposal of the Committee by the River Bann Fisheries 

 Commission. We availed ourselves of this excellent oppor- 

 tune of studying the algae of the largest fresh- water area in 

 the British Isles, and in June Wm. West spent twelve days on 

 and around the lough, being much assisted in the work by 

 several members of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club. 



The algae collected in Lough Neagh have turned out to be 

 very interesting. A large number of species were obtained, some 

 of them being very uncommon. Many species occurred in 

 countless profusion miles away from the shores, floating in 

 what seemed to be perfectly limpid water ; these were obtained 

 by tow-netting, the result by this method being much greater 

 than was anticipated. 



The tow-nets were of a conical form with somewhat rounded 

 apices ; they varied in size, being from 5 to 12 inches internal 

 diameter at the base and from 18 to nearly 30 inches in length. 

 Stout rings of copper were covered with broad bands of 



1 Waageu {Mem. Geo/. Surv. India, Pal indica, ser. xiii., 18^7, p. 403;, has 

 described a genus of brachiopods under the name of Oldhamina. It is 

 unfortunate, but almost inevitable, that this has been quoted, both in 

 Zittel's M Grundziige der Palaontologie" and in its American paraphrase, 

 as Oldhamia. The point is worth noting, since Oldhamia thus appears in 

 the indexes of these works, while the genus is not in reality discussed 

 in them. 



