1900.] Proceedings of 111 sh Societies. 45 



PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



ROYAT, ZOOI^OGICAI, SOCIETY. 



Receut gifts include a pair of Giskins from Mr. W. D. Beatty. An 

 Antelope has been born in the Gardens. We regret to learn that the 

 deaths of the fine male Chitapanzee, which has been m the Gardens for 

 four years, and of the Silver Gibbon, leave the collections for the present 

 without any of the man-like Apes. 



3,273 persons visited the Gardens during December. 



BEI.FAST NaTURAI^ISTS' F1EI.D Cl,UB. 



January 19.— Mr. Wii,i,iam Swanston, F.G.S., in the chair. 



A lecture was delivered by Mr. A. Spkers, B.Sc, on cavern formations, 

 with special reference to the mammoth cave of Kentuck)-. For half an 

 hour before the lecture there was an exhibition and discussion of land 

 and fresh-water shells, of which a large number were exhibited by 

 Messrs. H. L. Orr, R. Welch, W. Swanston, W. Gray, and R. Standen, of 

 Manchester. Mr. R. Welch read a short paper on the rare forms of 

 Helix iiemoj-alis, found at Bundoran, where the normal form is made into 

 necklaces, and sold to visitors. Necklaces of this kind are survivals of 

 the pre-historic forms found in ancient Irish graves Scalariform and 

 reversed specimens occur at Bundoran, as well as a curious heavy form 

 of var. hyalozonata, all being of great interest to naturalists, and furnishing 

 a topic for an animated discussion. Mr. R. Standen, of Manchester 

 Field Club, sent for exhibition a series of English and Irish amber 

 shells iStucinea), and Mr. Orr exhibited a curious malformation of the 

 shell Clausilia bzdentata, which had two mouths, and the members 

 present exhibited over one hundred specimens of reversed and scalari- 

 form shells oi Helix neuioralis. 



Mr. Speers, proceeding with his lecture, very fully described the 

 various forms of caves, and demonstrated by a successful chemical 

 experiment the solubility of limestone in water charged with carbon 

 dioxide. The extensive deposits of limestone in Ireland and elsewhere 

 are acted upon in this manner. Mr. Speers described the great Mammoth 

 cave of Kentucky, which he had visited, and which is found to consist 

 of a series of chambers on five different levels, connected by miles of 

 avenues through which the visitor is taken by the guides. In closing 

 his address Mr. Speers referred to the anthropological value of caverns, 

 which in pre-historic times w^ere the resort of early mankind, and 

 referred in detail to some special examples. 



Mr. Welch and Mr. Hogg exhibited some very excellent lantern views 

 of caverns in many parts of central Ireland, and view of egg-cluster of 

 the Kerry slug (^Geonialactts^ for the first time on any screen, and Mr. Gra)' 

 exhibited and described views of caverns that occur in the several 

 geological formations of the County Antrim, mainly, however, such as 

 were formed by marine denudation. 



