1900.] Pfoceedi7igs of Irish Societies, 79 



each section, and several good illustrations, these latter being in con- 

 nection with an address on " Old Limerick,"" delivered during the winter 

 session." 



The report was adopted. 



The following were elected officers for the year 1900: — President — Dr. 

 W. A. Fogerty. Vice-Presidents — Miss Alice Do34e ; Rev. Timothy Lee, 

 Administrator. Hon. Treasurer — Mr. Joseph Stewart. Hon. Secretary 

 — Mr. Francis Neale. Hon. Secretary of Photographic Section — Dr, 

 G. J. Fogarty. Committee— Miss Buubury, Miss Bbrill, Mr. W. Ebrill, 

 Mr. P. J. Lynch, CK- ; Mr. J. Fitzgerald-Windle, C.B. ; Mr. George Scott, 

 Mr. B. Barrington. 



The following were the exhibits : — Selected specimens of dried plants 

 from the Club Herbarium: a collection of local limestone fossils; lantern 

 slides, prints, and enlargements, by members of the Photographic 

 section ; Miss Bennis — Mounted examples of mosses, &c. ; W. W. Cooke 

 (Pigott & Co.)— Phonograph ; W. A. Fogarty, ALA., M.D.— Microscopes ; 

 Miss Garnett — A potato ; MisS Haughton^ — Abnormal Calhma vulgaris ; 

 Mrs. Neale— Fasciated willow stems; F. Neale — Butterflies, Colzas ediisa, 

 Pyrameis cardtn, Gonopteryx rhamni ; nest with eggs of cave spider 

 Meta menardii. 



Dubinin Naturai^ists' Fie:i,d Ci,ub. 



November 14. -The President (R. LI. Praeger, B.A.) in the chair. 

 About forty members and visitors w^ere present. 



Prof. Grenvii,i,E a. J. CoivE read a paper entitled "The Floor of a 

 Continent, with special reference to the older rocks of Ireland." The 

 paper was illustrated by lantern-slides. Prof. Cole explained how little 

 we know as to the real primitive crust of the globe. Even the oldest 

 masses that are brought by earth-movement to the present surface may 

 have been formed by mutual intrusion of molten rocks, long after the 

 first consolidation of the crust. The old crust may have been broken up 

 again and again, before our earliest surviving sediments were laid down. 

 Various Archaean areas in Europe were described and illustrated, and Sir 

 A. Geikie's views were quoted, to the effect that the ancient gneiss of 

 Loch Carron, in Scotland, includes earlier sediments, and is not in itself 

 a fundamental rock. The author described his own similar conclusions, 

 derived from a study of eastern Tyrone and southern Donegal. The 

 sedimentary or schistose series included in the Irish gneiss may well, 

 however, be of Archaean age. It is questionable if we know anywhere, 

 even in the American Laurentian, a truly " fundameutal" gneiss. As 

 yet, w4th our knowledge of some twelve miles at most of the thickness of 

 the present crust, we are worse ofi^ than a fly crawling on the dome of 

 St. Peter's, and endeavouring to estimate the nature of the complex 

 structure beneath his feet. Dr. W. R. EvanS and Dr. A. H. Foord 

 spoke on the subject of the paper. 



Mr. W. A, Cunnington, Mrs. Herdman, Mrs. W. P. Robinson, and Miss 

 J. F. Thomson were duly elected members of the Club, and two candi- 

 dates were nominated for election at the next meeting. 



