September, 1S9S.] 201 



IRISH FIELD CLUB UNION. 



REPORT OF THE SECOND TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE 

 AND EXCURSION, HELD AT KENMARE, JULY 



7TH TO 13TH, 1898. 



I.— GENERAL ACCOUNT. 



BY R. LI.OYD PRAEGER, B.E., 

 Secretary, Irish Field Club Union. 



Kenmare was selected by the Field Club Union Committee as the 

 centre for the second large gathering of the Irish Field Clubs on account 

 of its excellent position from a biological point of view, lying as it 

 does at the head of a long arm of the sea between two of the great 

 mountain-ribs of Kerry, the most interesting county in Ireland to the 

 naturalist. This place possessed, moreover, the important advantage 

 of a spacious hotel, wherein all the members might be housed together, 

 avoiding the inconvenience of any splitting-up of the party. The 

 scientific results of the trip, and the ease with which the party were 

 able to reach the best ground in the district, show that the choice of 

 a centre was wisely made; nor must the ease with w^hich Kenmare ia 

 reached from Dublin be left out of account. 



Thursday, Jui.y 7th. — The Belfast section of the party, in number 

 about 40, took the 7.30 a.m. express for Dublin, and in the after- 

 noon were joined at Kingsbridge station by the Dublin members 

 and the English contingent, when all took the Killarney express 

 at 2.20, in a train of carriages reserved for the members of the party. 

 Save for a brief halt at Ballybrophy for water, no stop was made till 

 Mallow was reached — 147 miles in five minutes under three hours. 

 Here the Limerick contingent joined the party, the Cork members having 

 gone on b^' an earlier train. The tedium of the journey was beguiled 

 by studying the country through which the train rapidly passed— the 

 great limestone plain, broken up by ridges of Old Red Sandstone and 

 Silurian rocks. The geology of the journey was made amply clear by 

 means of a map by Mr. J. Porter, B.E., showing the distribution of the 

 various formations along the line of route, copies of which were distri- 

 buted, supplemented by the description of the district by Prof Cole, 

 which appeared in the programme. At Headford Junction the special 

 carriages were uncoupled from the Killarney train, and a short and highly 

 picturesque run through steep rocky wooded hills brought the party to 

 Kenmare, where they were joined by the Cork members and by various 

 stragglers who had come down in advance, and all were soon esconced 

 in the Southern Hotel, the most accessible of the four houses which the 

 Southern Hotels Co.; Ld., have recently erected on the beautiful coast 



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