Reports and Proceedings. 215 
edition of his ‘Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain;’ 
and the writings of Lyell, Hopkins, and Prestwich should also be 
consulted.—W. W. 
Berrast Firip-NAtTuraALists’ Crus.—The Fifth Excursion was 
made on the 17th September; Shane’s Castle Park, Antrim, was 
the lecality visited. ‘The park was traversed, and the course of the 
River Main followed, reaching the shore of Lough Neagh, the 
members occupying themselves during the ramble (which was con- 
tinued as far as the ruins of the old castle) by a search after the rare 
plants reported to grow there. At the Quarry Head, near the 
Castle, the highly interesting lignite-bed, so strangely interstra- 
tified with the basalt, was visited. It is one of those carbonaceous 
deposits which occur so frequently in the Co. Antrim in connection 
with the trap-rock. A bed of this kind, 2-6 feet thick, is regularly 
worked at Killymorris, Ballymena, and sold by the ton for fuel; a 
thicker band, but not so available, is found at the Giant’s Causeway ; 
and beds of less importance occur in several other localities. ‘The 
bed of carbonaceous matter or lignite occurring at Shane’s Castle is 
not very clearly marked, being mixed up with a thick bed of decom- 
posed trap; but the solid semi-columnar trap-rock that overlies this 
bed is remarkable for the quantity of small globular fragments of jet 
that it contains. Silicified wood, also derived from the basaltic 
rocks, was found upon the shores of the Lough. 
The Sixth and last Excursion of the season was made on the 8th 
of October, to the Cave Hill. Belfast is one of the finest geological 
centres in the British Isles, for there is presented within an area of 
15 miles radius an epitome of most of the formations; only the 
Upper Silurian, the Oolitic, and the Eocene deposits being 
absent. In the short distance embraced in the walk in the 
line of the Cave Hill Railway, the following formations were 
passed over and studied :—Newer Pliocene deposits, on the 
shore between Belfast and Greencastle,—these constitute shell- 
banks uncovered at mid-tide ; Glacial drift, at the Reservoirs, at an 
elevation of about 40 feet,—resting on the New Red Marls, which 
continue up the hill to an elevation of 546 feet ; the Rhetic series, 
consisting of Black Shales, with Aviewla conturta and Gyrolepis, 
sueceeded by indurated marls, with Cardium Rheticum, Modiola 
minima, &c.; the Upper Greensand, the lithological divisions of 
which are well exposed in the quarries,—1. Glauconitic sands, in 
which were found, in profusion, Kxogyra conica, var. levigata, Sow., 
and Pecten orbicularis,—2. Grey marls, in which Ostrea carinata 
was almost the only fossil found,—38. Chloritic sandstone, the 
‘mulatto’ of the workmen, in which was found, hitherto unknown as 
a British fossil, Eptaster crassissimus, Defr., together with Ostrea 
canaliculata, Pecten quinquecostatus, &c. Also the Upper Chalk, the 
common fossils of which were obtained in plenty—Ammonites Gol- 
levillensis, Belemnitella mucronata, Rhynchonella octoplicata, Tere- 
bratula carnea, Ananchytes ovatus, and Paramoudras. ‘Trap-dykes, 
here of unusual size, are seen intersecting the formations, giving 
