able group of ancient ecclesiastical edifices, including one of th e 

 most remarkable of the remarkable round towers of Ireland. Ou 

 going over the ruins the party was very much surprised to find so 

 little care taken of what must be regarded as highly interesting 

 historic monuments ; cattle freely roam over sculptured cross and 

 engraved slabs, rank weeds cover ancient monuments, and dis- 

 gusting filth pollutes the ancient church; sculptures are rubbed 

 off by wandering cattle, or battered by the no more careful Vandals 

 who visit the island to sport with the relicts of ancient times ; and 

 broken mouldings, chipped ornaments, and fractured slabs, are 

 scattered around, and rents traverse the main walls of the chief 

 structures, which claim the attention of those whose wish or duty 

 it is to save such historic monuments from ruin and decay. 



The following resolutions referring to this subject were passed: — 



"A number of members of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club 

 having, during their excursion to Lough Erne, visited the island of 

 Devenish, and examined, with much interest, the ecclesiastical re- 

 mains on that spot, so celebrated in the annals of Irish history, feel 

 it impossible to separate without giving expression to their feeling 

 of deep regret at the state of neglect and dilapidation to which 

 these national monuments have been reduced." 



" That a copy of the foregoing minute be forwarded to the 

 Church Temporalities Commissioners in Ireland." 



Leaving Devenish, the party retired to the Imperial Hotel for 

 the night. Next day, after an early breakfast, vans were prepared 

 for a drive to Florence Court, the splendid demesne of the Earl of 

 Enniskillen. As the day was wet, and time short, little atten- 

 tion could be given to the grounds, but the available time was 

 very profitably spent in the Earl's fine museum of geological 

 specimens. The collection of fossil fish alone was worth the visit, 

 and many of the members regretted exceedingly the short time 

 they had to see them — far too short to do justice to this rich col- 

 lection. A drive of about four miles further on brought the party 

 to the so-called Marble Arch, a grand collection of overturned rocks, 

 that would give a well-known member of the Club ample scope for 



