106 [Proc. B. N. F. C, 



aided in the progress of the study of Natural Science in Belfast, 

 the circumstances which led to the establishment of our Club 

 in the year 1863, and some particulars regarding the principal 

 events of the earlier years of its history. I had purposed on 

 that occasion to make some reference to the general progress of 

 scientific inquiry during the quarter century which has elapsed 

 since the Club began its work, and with your permission I 

 shall now do so. The title of our Society, and its objects, as 

 defined in our constitution —viz., the practical study of Natural 

 Science and Archaeology in Ireland — would, at the first appear- 

 ance, rather limit the scope of the subject under consideration. 

 I shall, however, take a broader view, and consider that in 

 order to fulfil that object it is absolutely necessary that our 

 studies should extend far beyond our own country, and that we 

 should be acquainted with the working of those mighty forces 

 in nature which in ages past have exerted their action here, 

 but whose full powers are now only to be realised in distant 

 lands. It is somewhat difficult to lay down a hard-and-fast 

 boundary line between what may be termed Natural Science 

 and Physical Science, as the action of the physical forces exert 

 such a paramount influence upon the fauna and flora of any 

 district. I therefore think it is quite within the scope of the 

 subject I have selected for this evening's address, to refer, not 

 only to the advance in knowledge of natural science, strictly 

 speaking, but also to the similar progress in physical science, 

 and the application of some of its more recent discoveries to the 

 development of our home comforts, our facilities for travel, and 

 consequent opening up of unexplored or undeveloped regions, 

 and so furthering our commerce, and enabling us to avail our- 

 selves of the natural products of distant countries. No matter 

 what our special hobbies may be, these are matters which con- 

 cern us all, and I shall therefore in the first place refer to them. 

 In the facilities for transport, both by land and sea, marked 

 progress has been made during the past twenty-five years. It 

 does not require a veryfgreat stretch of some of our memories 

 to go back a few years further, when vessels in the timber 



