1 4 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



than practically answered, mainly because places within reach, and 

 capable of affording a day's pleasure, seem quite unknown. The 

 Belfast Naturalists' Field Club are never at a loss in selecting suit- 

 able trips. They have had six excursions every year for the last 

 ten years, and yet they can still fill their programme with new 

 places of interest, and seldom traverse the same ground twice. 

 The last trip was on the Lagan Canal, and it proved one of the 

 pleasantest excursions enjoyed for a long time. It was a thorough 

 naturalists' excursion, involving no fatigue, while it afforded ample 

 opportunity for botanical rambles, sketching, dredging, and col- 

 lecting specimens for cabinets at home. The party left town by 

 train for Moira. Here a well-appointed barge awaited them, kindly 

 lent for the occasion by the directors of the Lagan Navigation 

 Company. It was capable of comfortably accommodating sixteen 

 or eighteen passengers, and was drawn over the canal at a rapid 

 rate by a horse travelling along the bank. This mode of locomo- 

 tion was as agreeable as it was novel ; and, being quite under the 

 control of the skipper, a halt was made whenever the party wished 

 to land on either side of the canal. Such stoppages were frequent, 

 as they afforded opportunity for collecting the plants fringing the 

 canal, which could not be secured by other means, and the dredg- 

 ing operations for freshwater shells and sponges were enjoyed 

 without the disagreeable effects of similar operations at sea, or even 

 in the harbour. For the greater portion of the distance between 

 Moira and Lisburn, the canal is unbroken by locks, but from 

 Lisburn to Belfast the locks are very frequent, and the canal more 

 tortuous in its course ; but the physical features of the country that 

 necessitate these appliances add very much to the beauty of the 

 scenery on each side. The upper portion of the canal lies in a 

 comparatively tame country, but the lower part is through a 

 succession of diversified plantations, many spots being exceedingly 

 picturesque and beautiful, reminding us very much of the charming 

 paintings we so often see of views " on the Thames." Gliding 

 through a succession of such scenes along the Lagan on a calm 

 summer evening is exceedingly agreeable. On this occasion its 



