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



vestigation of every one of those natural laws by which our 

 world is held in being, or which has contributed to its adapta- 

 tion for man, and the study of the development and utilisation 

 of those laws, is quite within our province, and cannot but give 

 to us an extended reverence for the wisdom and power of Him 

 by whom these laws were set in force, and at whose word the 

 " heavens and earth rose out of chaos." 



The second meeting of the session was held in the Museum, 

 College Square North, on 1 8th December — the President (Mr. 

 Hugh Robinson, M.R.I.A.) in the chair — when a paper was 

 read by Mr. Robert Lloyd Praeger, B.E., B,A. — subject : " A 

 Deep Sea Dredging Expedition." The meeting was well at- 

 tended by members and visitors. The reader commenced his 

 paper with an account of the aims and objects of the expedition 

 of which he was about to speak. The Royal Irish Academy, 

 desiring information respecting the marine fauna of the South- 

 West of Ireland, appointed a committee who were to explore 

 these waters, and report on the results of their dredgings. Pro- 

 fessor A. C. Haddon, of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, 

 and Mr. Joseph Wright, F.G.S., of Belfast, were heads of the 

 scientific staff, while the general management was entrusted to 

 Rev. W. S. Green, M.A., of Carrigaline, County Cork. Under 

 these auspices three expeditions were despatched — in 1885, 1886, 

 and 1888. Having briefly described the events of the two for- 

 mer, Mr. Praeger came on to speak of the present yeai's trip, 

 and before entering on the narrative of the cruise, he described 

 the apparatus and equipments which are used in deep-sea 

 sounding and dredging, with special reference to the machines 

 which were employed on the present occasion. The difficulties 

 which attend the correct ascertaining of depths, and the obtain- 

 ing of specimens of the sea-bottom and of the animals that live 

 thereon, in the deep waters of the ocean, have only been com- 

 pletely overcome during the last few years, and this is largely 

 due to the introduction of fine steel wire in the sounding machine 



