300 The Iri&h Naturalist, [Nov., 1896. 



FIEIvD CI.UB NEWS. 



We have to congratulate Rev. C. H. Waddell, Vice-President of the 

 Belfast Club, on his successful establishment of an Bxchauge Club for 

 British mosses and hepatics, some particulars respecting which will be 

 found in our Botanical Notes. 



The Belfast Club was recently honoured with a visit from its founder 

 in 1863, Ralph Tate, then a science teacher under the South Kensington 

 Department, now Professor of Natural History in the University of Ade- 

 laide, Director of the Museum there, and the foremost naturalist in Aus- 

 tralasia. He received a cordial welcome from the veteran members of the 

 Club— S. A. Stewart, William Gray, William Swauston, W. H. Phillips, 

 and others — and delighted them with the freshness of his recollections 

 ofthe old days when they laid the foundation of the first Irish Field 

 Club. 



It is pleasant to note the interchange of courtesies by which members 

 of the Metropolitan Field Club were invited to take part in the Belfast 

 Club Conversazione on 27th October, and members of the northern and 

 southern Clubs to take part in the conversazione of the Dublin Club on 

 loth November. A goodly party of members from Dublin attended the 

 Belfast meeting, and no doubt the compliment will be returned at the 

 forthcoming meeting in Dublin. Both will be reported in our next 

 issue. 



It is a good sign to find our younger Field Club members appreciating 

 the value of a scientific training in natural history work. H. Lyster 

 Jameson, ofthe Dublin Club, having gained a studentship in the Royal 

 College of Science, has gone to London for a six months course of bio- 

 logical study. Miss Knowles, of the Belfast Club, has come to Dublin for 

 a special course on Algse under Prof. Johnson. H. J. Seymour, ofthe 

 Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, who goes to Belfast to study engineering 

 at Queen's College under Prof Fitzgerald, will be an acquisition to the 

 Geological Section ofthe Belfast Field Club. 



We much regret to learn that the expedition organized by the Royal 

 Society, under the leadership of Prof. Sollas, to make a deep boring 

 into a coral atoll, has failed to fulfil its main object. The island of 

 Funafuti was selected as the scene of work, and it was found that at 

 about 70 feet below the surface further boring became impossible, as a 

 material like quicksand, which choked the borehole, containing great 

 boulders of coral-rock, was reached. So far as the reef was pierced 

 it appeared to be "a vast coarse sponge of coral, with wide inter- 

 stices either empty or sand-filled." Prof Sollas and his companions 

 however made numerous highly interesting and valuable hydrographi- 

 cal, ethnological, and biological observations, and though the failure to 

 solve one of the most burning scientific problems ofthe day will cause 

 general disappointment, it is satisfactory to know that our knowledge of 

 man and nature has been largely increased by the labours of our Dublin 

 professor and his colleagues. 



