l»85-i886.] 421 



them. These naturally created a desire among the less 

 fortunate members that a dredging excursion should be 

 organised on a scale sufficiently large to admit of many taking 

 part in it to witness the methods by which they^are carried out, 

 and to share in the spoils brought to Hght. The project having 

 been fully discussed and approved of, a small sub-committee was 

 appointed to arrange the details and, if possible, carry it into 

 effect. An attractive programme was issued, which resulted in 

 upwards of fifty members and their friends assembling on board 

 the steamer Protector by nine o'clock on Tuesday morning. 

 The object of the expedition was evidently a matter of curiosity 

 to the small band of observers that witnessed the embarkation; 

 the extraordinary number of baskets and hampers, the coils of 

 rope, a ponderous wooden tray, the great variety of dredges, 

 and other inexplicable apparatus, must have been rather puzzl- 

 ing, and no doubt indicated something unusual. Mutual con- 

 gratulations on the prospects of a favourable day for the work, 

 and the good behaviour of the barometer since the previous 

 afternoon, were freely indulged in as the Protector made her 

 way out of the harbour. Clearing the Holywood Lighthouse 

 a brief programme of the day's proceedings is announced. A 

 business call had to be made at Carrickfergus, off which dredg- 

 ing was to commence, and so be carried on at intervals into 

 the deeper water outside of the lough. A northern course 

 would then be taken, and the return journey would be by the 

 County Down side. Meantime good speed had been made, 

 and soon the steamer was slowing up at one of the new piers 

 under the shadow of Carrick's ancient castle. The Rev. Canon 

 Grainger, the President of the Club, on joining here, was 

 hailed with right loyal cheers. Several oyster dredges, and 

 men experienced in working them, having been taken on 

 board, another start is made, and preparations are at once 

 commenced for working. The ponderous wooden tray is lashed 

 to the bulwarks behind one of the paddle-boxes, coils of rope 

 are unbent, dredges are securely attached, and at about a mile 

 out, under certain land bearings intelligible only to those long 

 experienced in trawling and dredging in the lough, the ground 



