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accumulation of debris. A specimen of Gardina ovalis, common 

 n,ear Larne, *was picked up in the drift at Castle Espie, and all 

 those fragments are more or less scratched, grooved, and polished 

 by the movements of the glaciers. The surface of the limestone, 

 also, over which the glaciers passed, is scratched and polished 

 in a similiar manner — all the scratches being in the direction of 

 the moving glaciers. Several good hand specimens exhibiting 

 these phenomena were procured. It would be very desirable if 

 good large specimens could be deposited in the Belfast Museum 

 and Queen's College. Leaving the Castle Espie works, the party 

 visited several of the Islands that occur in Strangford Lough. 

 On Eeagh Island a gravel deposit was examined, and a large 

 quantity of the well-known flint-flakes were collected^— indeed 

 the fields were full of them over an extensive area. The deposit 

 in which they are found is not the same as the true drift of 

 Oastle Espie, but seems rather to be a raised sea beach. Passing 

 the question as to whether these flint flakes are natural or arti- 

 ficial, it is evident that this district all round Strangford Lough 

 was the scene of some of the earliest events of Irish history. 

 Here on a now lonely island stand the last remnants of one of 

 our famous round towers, protected by the overshadowing arms 

 of friendly ivy, and around its base lie the scattered fragments 

 of forgotten buildings. The beautiful landscape, varied by the 

 broken outline of the Lough, and enriched by scattered islands, 

 rounded hillocks, and cultivated farms, was once the battle-field 

 of contending chieftains, when Sir John de Courcy, in 1177, 

 struggled for the mastery of Ulster. The ruins of many of the 

 twenty-seven castles with which he surrounded Strangford Lough 

 still remain, as witnesses of the zeal with which he executed his 

 mission. Sketrick, and Mahee Castles were visited by members 

 of the club, and sketches taken of both. Interesting as the ex- 

 cursion was to the geologists and archaeologists, it was not less 

 so to the botanists, who added to gatherings, formerly reported, 

 specimens of a rare bramble (Mubus thyrsoideus) not hitherto 

 recorded as occurring in County Down ; and at Ardmillan was 

 found one of the rarer- species of smokeworts (Fumaria pallidi- 

 fiora), hitherto supposed to be a plant mainly of the South of 

 England, but collected by members of the club last summer on 

 the occasion of their visit to Cushendall. On the muddy wastes, 



