1897.] Proceedings of Irish Societies. 249 



noted, also the way in which the bait was kept fresh on the hooks, which 

 were laid after baiting at one end of the flat basket on damp sand. Here 

 the party scattered along the shores of the lake, bent on different 

 pursuits, traversing the rich carpet of Harebells along the rocky margin. 

 The botanists and geologists did fair work during the day. The 

 former collected many of our gayest wildflowers. Leomirus Cardiacs, a 

 rare labiate plant, was found growing spontaneously in a hedge and field 

 at Cranfield. It is not, however, to be classed as a native, but as an 

 escape from cultivation, it having been a medicinal plant of renown in 

 the olden times. Potamogeton heterophyllus was found somewhat plentiful 

 in the lough ; and Galium boreale was abundant amongst the rocks on the 

 shore. Here also grows Hieracium atiratum, just coming into bloom now 

 with Rosa mollis, Circaa alpina, and several other plants of note. The 

 geologists visited the plant-beds in the basalts of Eocene age which 

 are exposed on the shore of the lough about half a mile west of the old 

 church, and picked up some erratics, including Ailsa eurite (?) at various 

 points along the margins, in the thin patches of gravel which only 

 partly cover the surface of the basalt all round Cranfield Point. The 

 shell-collectors found LimJic^a pahtstris, Planorbis marginatus, and Ancylus 

 lacustris, in all stages of growth, covering the rocks along the shores of 

 the lake, whilst a colony of the rarer Limnsa siagnalis, much larger 

 specimens than those in the lough, flourished in a little pond at Rabbit 

 Point. The albino variety of Bythinia tentaculata occurred in several 

 places in flood-material, quite fresh, though dead, with Physa fontinalis, 

 and masses of the young shells of the wandering snail, Limnaa peregra^ 

 and a few Pisidia. The old church at Cranfield Point may be said to 

 occupy the *' point " itself, as the graveyard in which it stands forms a 

 small cape on the north-west end of Lough Neagh. The church is a 

 small rectangular ruin, measuring 42 feet 6 inches by 21 feet 5 inches, 

 the height of the site being about 10 feet 6 inches on the iUvSide, but 

 nearly 3 feet less on the outside, owing to the gradual heightening of the 

 graveyard. The gable walls of the east and west ends are in fairly good 

 preservation — having received some attention from the Board of Works — 

 but it was noticed that the Ivy is causing a very serious fissure to appear 

 at the north-west groin, and unless its growth is arrested, will eventually 

 undo the good performed by the Board of Works. 



After some hours spent here a return was made to Randalstown, where 

 a hearty meal was partaken of in Macaulay's comfortable little country 

 inn. The 5.25 train was taken to Belfast, bringing back a party well 

 satisfied with their visit to this out-of-the-way but enjoyable district. 



