256 The Irish Naturalist. November, 



within live minutes' walk of the reception-room. The dis- 

 tance of the Association's headquarters from the centre of 

 the city and the hotels was an inconvenience hardly felt, owing 

 to a much appreciated concession made hy the Belfast Street 

 Tramways Company, who presented each Member and Asso- 

 ciate with a free pass over their entire system, available 

 during the period of the meeting. The bulk of the visitors 

 were accommodated in hotels and lodgings. The response to 

 the Local Committee's. invitation as to offering hospitality was 

 not so general as had been anticipated, and in this and other 

 respects a certain lack of practical interest in the visit of the 

 Association was shown by the general public of Belfast. On 

 the other hand, the work done by the Local Committee and 

 its officers, and the enthusiastic co-operation of many local 

 scientific men, combined to render the meeting the great 

 success w^hich it undoubtedly was. The three Local Secretaries 

 Professor Fitzgerald, John Brown, F.R.S., and G. W. Ferguson, 

 with their assistant, A. H. Muir, worked hard to meet the 

 varied demands made upon them. In getting together and 

 arranging the temporary Museum in the Anthropological 

 Department, Professor Symington and R. Welch performed a 

 laborious and most useful piece of work, which was very 

 highly appreciated b}^ the visitors ; while as Secretaries of 

 Sections or conductors of excursions, manj' of the leading 

 Field Club members, including William Gray, W. J. Fennell, 

 Rev. C. H. Waddell, H. J. Seymour, J. St. J. Phillips, and 

 Robert Patterson, were conspicuou.sly useful. But in this con- 

 nection also there w^as an unequal response to the Association's 

 summons, and certain leading officials of local scientific 

 societies were conspicuous chiefly by their absence. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



The most important local publication in connection with 

 the meetings of the British Association is always the " Hand- 

 book," prepared each year by the Local Committee or persons 

 delegated by them, and giving a general and scientific account 

 of the district in which the meeting is held. In the case of 

 the Belfast meeting this work w^as very properly handed over 

 to the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, who have such a long 



