4 2 



the next order. Many of them — some of rare species — occur 

 in our locality. They have little in their appearance that is 

 attractive, and having no shell or hard external covering they 

 are not found as fossils, though, doubtless, they were repre- 

 sented in the seas of past eras. The " HoIothur^ce , ' are en- 

 dowed with a singular recuperative power ; they have the 

 habit, when caught, of ejecting their entire viscera and tent- 

 acles, leaving the collector with only their empty skin ; so 

 strong, however, is their hold on life, that the animal still 

 lives, and in a short time is furnished with a bran new set of 

 internal organs. The " Synapta," which is plentiful on the 

 Holywood banks, breaks itself into a number of small frag- 

 ments, to the chagrin of him who has been at the pains of 

 digging it up out of its native mud. 



The paper, of which the above is a resume, went into the 

 subject in much detail, and was illustrated by many choice 

 specimens, both recent and fossil. 



On Wednesday evening, January nth, Mr. Fitzpatrick 

 read a paper on " Newtownbreda and its Neighbourhood." 



Having described the physical geography of the valley of 

 the Lagan, the paper proceeded to sketch the early history of 

 the district as the north-western extremity of Dal-Araidhe or 

 Down, and southern boundary of the ancient territory of 

 Uladh. During the Pagan times, the early Christian era, or 

 the wars or family quarrels of the O'Neills and O'Donnells, 

 but little mention is made of the locality, except in general 

 reference to the district of Dal-Araidhe, of which Saul, Down- 

 patrick, Moira, and Castlereagh of late seem to have been the 

 centres. It is, however, supposed that the village of Breadac 

 or Bradach existed previous to the fifteenth century, as a dis- 

 pute is recorded as having occurred (a.d. 1442) between 

 "Nellanus McMalawy and Thomas O'Meaig as to the right 



