200 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



The Annual Meeting of the Club took place on Wednesday 

 evening, 29th March, 1876. The Chair was occupied by the 

 vice-president, William Gray, Esq., M.R.I.A. 



The business of the evening was commenced by Mr. Joseph 

 Wright, F.G.S., giving an account of dredging operations carried 

 on in Belfast Bay, and waters adjacent. During last autumn a 

 number of members of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club joined 

 Thomas Workman, Esq., in his yacht Denburn, for the purpose 

 of dredging in Belfast Bay and Channel outside. All requisite 

 appliances were provided, and, under the guidance of a gentleman 

 so well versed in marine zoology, as also in the best methods 

 of facilitating dredging operations, the party proceeded under 

 most favourable auspices, and met with a fair amount of success. 

 Other dredgings were conducted in conjunction with Mr. Swanston, 

 in yawls procured at Bangor and Donaghadee, and the results 

 of those various operations were now reported on. Mr. Wright 

 said he had been asked to report on the microzoa obtained on 

 these occasions. The material, however, was only partially ex- 

 amined — the Foraminifera alone having been worked up in detail. 

 With reference to the other departments — Mollusca, Crustacea, 

 Echinodermat'a, and Zoophyta — two other members had undertaken 

 the examination, and had supplied the requisite information, which 

 will be referred to hereafter. Up to 1858, the date when Professor 

 Williamson published his monograph of the British Foraminifera, 

 only 27 of this group were known to occur in Ireland. Shortly 

 afterwards, however, there was a report issued by the committee 

 who had obtained grants of money from the British Association 

 for the purpose of dredging in our lough and its vicinity. This 

 report resulted in the addition of ten species to our list of Fora- 

 minifera, raising the total number of Irish species to 37. As 

 compared with these figures, the result of our recent work is most 

 encouraging — already the fine material brought up from our sea 

 bottom and examined for Foraminifera has yielded 81 different 

 forms, and when we bear in mind that the results of several of the 

 hauls remain to be ascertained we may fairly anticipate that others 



