19^2. The British Associatioi in Belfast. 305 



Saturday, 13th September, 11 p.m. — I am teartully tired — we were away 

 at the Valley of the Boyne to see where the Belfast people g-ot their party 

 cries from. The two sides gfet so hot in the month oi July that they have 

 riots and throw stones and some queer sort of nuts that g-row on the shores 

 of the lougfh just at the mouth of the harbour. I haven't seen any of these 

 nuts, but there was a g-ood deal of talk about them, and I suppose they 

 must be the ones that Mr. Lloyd Praeg-er said he had found chalcidified in 

 the boulder clay. — (From " The Diary of the Jerboa," in Ulster Echo). 



It was sugg-ested in the Northern Whig that Mr. Sloan, M.P., mig-ht read 

 a paper in the Botanical Section on "The Segmentation of the Orange as 

 affecting- the Representation oi South Belfast," but that the subject would 

 be as unintelligible to a cross-Channel botanical expert as a disquisition on 

 " The Dorsiventrality of the Podostemaceae " would be to a South Belfast 

 elector. 



In the Anthropological Section, one of the local papers dealt with a 

 Settlement of Irish Elk-hunters near Groomsport, County Down. We felt 

 quite enthusiastic about these Bronze Ag-e ancestors, living on cockles and 

 venison on the sandy shores of Balloo Bay, and it was a sad shock to learn 

 that a scrutiny of the bones exhibited revealed the fact that they were cow ! 

 It was only another case of the Bull-feast after all. 



In a newspaper report of the Natural Selection debate, Mr. \V. F". de \'. 

 Kane was credited with a reference to "dark coloured varieties of 

 amphibious bacteria. " He had not discussed protective coloration as 

 applicable to virulent microbes, but to a harmless moth — Amphidasys betitlaria! 

 What's in a name? 



" Can you tell me what they mean by ' the Atlantis problem' ? I see b}- 

 the programme that Dr. Scharff is to read a paper on the subject," 



" That's a printer's error most likely. It should read 'the Atlantic pro- 

 blem ' — something about the Morgan combine, I should say." 



" But it is in the Zoological, not the Economic, Section." 



" Then take my tip Atlantis is an insect. For, whether to the scientists 

 of the Section or to the working men of the city, these Johnnies have talked 

 of creeping- things all along. It would be a relief if they would trot out 

 some big game for a change. I fancy, though, I've heard of a butterfly 

 with some such name as Atlantis." 



(Later.) " I find by the synopsis that Atlantis is the name of a supposed 

 ancient empire (since submerged), which once united Europe to America." 



" Then, after all, it was an Atlantic combine." — (From *' Echoes from the 

 Press-room,"' in Northern IVhig^.) 



