15° [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



The Committee take this opportunity of returning their sincere 

 thanks to those noblemen and gentlemen who so kindly threw 

 open their grounds to the members of the Club at the various 

 excursions; as in former years, not a single refusal was met with, 

 but full permission granted immediately on being asked for. They 

 also desire to express their obligations to the managers of the 

 various railway companies, for the special facilities they have been 

 granted in the arrangement of the excursions. To J. J. Gardiner, 

 Esq., resident engineer of the Glenariff Iron Ore and Harbour 

 Company, the Club is specially indebted, he having, in the kindest 

 manner, provided gratuitously a special train for the conveyance 

 of the members and their friends, by that company's mineral 

 railway, to the head of Glenariff, on the occasion of the Coast Road 

 excursion. 



In addition to the regular excursions of the Club, several of the 

 members had, during the month of September last, the pleasure of 

 engaging in a series of dredging expeditions. One of the original 

 members of the Club, Thomas Workman, Esq., generously gave 

 the use of his yacht, " Denburn," and, accompanied by him, 

 several days' dredging in and about the mouth of Belfast Lough 

 was accomplished. From these excursions valuable results have 

 already been obtained, and it is hoped that these investigations 

 will be further prosecuted, and that at a future time a complete 

 report upon them will be brought before the Club, thus giving a 

 still more exact knowledge of the marine zoology of the district. 



During the Winter Session the following papers were read : — 



17th Nov. " Opening Address." By Rev. W. Macllwaine, D.D. 



15th Dec. "The Vegetable Parasites of the Human Body." By J. M. 



Johnston Scott, Esq., M.D. 

 5th Jan. " The Natural History of Water, and its Effects in Nature." By 



Adam Speers, Esq., B.Sc. 

 2nd Feb. " The Beginnings of Life." By W. J. Browne, Esq., M.A. 

 8th March. " The Birds of Lough Neagh." By Rev. George Robinson, M.A. 

 29th March. " Practical Hints to Collectors of Lepidoptera." By Rev. John 

 Bristow, B.A. 



