278 [Proc. B;N. F. C, 



and Mr. Swanston and I discovered a number of the cavities 

 to be due to some fruit which seems to have been lobed and 

 echinated, very variable in size, and shed in vast profusion. 

 Their decay seems to have generated or set free much gas, 

 which has formed deep cavities. 



I must next refer to the silicified wood and the hgnites of 

 Lough Neagh. These have been known for a very long period, 

 and petrified trunks seem to have existed a century and a half 

 ago, that could not be moved by a team of oxen, and from 

 which branches were broken as thick as a man's leg. Very 

 little is now left on the shores, the larger specimens having 

 been removed to adorn rockeries. It is greatly to be hoped 

 that a fine specimen may be secured for the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington, to correspond with the splendid 

 silicified trunk from New Zealand, which forms the most con- 

 spicuous object in the gallery of fossil plants. Any member of 

 this Club would hand down a name to posterity, and render 

 science a service by arranging the presentation of such a speci- 

 men to our great National Museum. It has long been a moot 

 point, whether the wood is derived from the supposed Pliocene 

 deposits of the Lough, or from Basalts through the Boulder 

 Clay. The evidence in favour of the former is, so far as I 

 gather from publications, not absolutely conclusive, though 

 members of this Club, particularly our esteemed Secretary, 

 Mr. Swanston,* seem to have embraced this view. Mr. Gray 

 considers that the wood is found both in the lignites of the 

 Lough and in the Basalts, considering these deposits to be of 

 the same age. The opinions of such trained observers, familiar 

 as they are with the ground, deserves ever)^ respect, supposing 

 that they have undergone no change, yet there seem two or 

 three points deserving further consideration. The leaves that 

 are found in concretionary iron at low water on the shore 

 appear to differ greatly from those of the Ballypalady deposit. 

 Some appear to be nearer to leaves of existing trees, such as 

 beech, willow, and alder ; and it is quite conceivable that the 

 supposed Sequoia might really be a fir or juniper, for I have 



• Proc. B.N.F.C., vol. i., p. 350. Ibidj loth Report, 1 879, p. 40, 



