354 [yroc B. N. F. C, 



The second meeting of the Session was held on i6th Decem- 

 ber—Rev. H. W. Lett, M.A., T.C.D., presiding. Two com- 

 munications were brought forward. The first was on " The 

 origin and history of the Lignites and Silicified Wood of Lough 

 Neagh, by Mr. William Swanston, F.G.S. The reader, in in- 

 troducing the subject, stated that much attention had recently 

 been directed to these remnants of an ancient vegetation found 

 scattered through the drift and gravels. Conjecture pointed to 

 their being linked with the plant remains of the iron ores and 

 bauxites of County Antrim, but no conclusive evidence could 

 be adduced. Their abundance along the south-western shore 

 of Lough Neagh, in the neighbourhood of an extensive deposit 

 of clays, to which various ages had been assigned, pointed 

 strongly to those beds as the probable source. These beds had 

 indeed by early writers been pointed out, and the records of 

 investigations in them left no room to doubt that the silicified 

 woods are derived from them ; but recent writers have treated 

 the evidence and records as antiquated, and, while substituting 

 no further information, have left the question again an open 

 one. Mr. J. Starkie Gardiner, F.L.S., F.G.S., in a valuable 

 paper read before the Club,* pointed out the desirability of 

 solving this important question, and with that view Lough 

 Neagh was frequently visited. The reader then gave a brief 

 summary of the literature of the subject. Referring to the 

 locality, he pointed out that an extensive area, tinted grey on 

 the Geological Map of Ireland, compiled by the late Professor 

 Jukes, indicated, as per margin, Pleistocene clays. A visitor to 

 the district would perhaps fail at first sight to recognise these 

 clay beds, as they are but slightly exposed to view, being 

 covered with the usual boulder drift and soil, with which you 

 must all be familiar. In summer, however, when the water is 

 low, white and greyish clays may in places be seen, resembling 

 pipeclays, which, when stirred up, give to the water an appear- 



* The Age of the Basalts of North-East Atlantic. Proc. B.N.F.C., Sec. II., 

 Vol. II., Part IV., Page 254. 



