

1876-1877.] 22 1 



dredging expeditions. Their labours have resulted in the detec- 

 tion here of a large number of species additional to those already 

 known to occur in the North of Ireland, and perhaps in no one 

 year has there been greater progress in our knowledge of the 

 Botany, Zoology, Geology, and Palaeontology of the district. 



Your Committee take this opportunity of thanking the noblemen 

 and gentlemen who so kindly permitted your Club to visit their 

 grounds. Also to again express their obligations to the members 

 and friends who gave us the benefit of their local knowledge on 

 such occasions. Your Committee would also express their thank- 

 fulness to Lachlan M'Laine, Esq., for his hospitality, and for 

 kindly placing his yacht at the disposal of the Club, on the 

 occasion of its visit to Killyleagh ; and likewise to Mr. Lowry, 

 who accompanied a party in his yacht, enabling those interested 

 to carry out some dredging operations in Strangford Lough on the 

 same occasion. The results of these dredgings are very interest- 

 ing, and are embodied in the report of that excursion. 



The Sub-Committee appointed to assist in the re-arrangement 

 of the local department of the Natural History and Philosophical 

 Society's Museum, continue their labours, and most of the collec- 

 tions in the building have been put in order. The Herbarium, 

 which promises to be a very complete one, will probably be 

 finished by the end of the year. The collections illustrative of 

 Geology are complete, so far as the material is available. There 

 are arranged in cases 702 species of fossils, 104 minerals, and 85 

 rock specimens. The Club's members have added much to the 

 value of these collections. The specimens in the Herbarium are 

 almost entirely due to the labours of Mr. S. A. Stewart and Mr. 

 Hugh Robinson. In the Geological department, the comprehen- 

 sive series of rock specimens presented by your Vice-President, 

 Mr. William Gray, M.R.I.A., deserve special notice. Also the 

 Microzoa presented by Mr. Joseph Wright, F.G.S., of which there 

 are 150 species from the Cretaceous rocks alone, forming a 



