402 [Proc. B.N.F.G., 



from a bed of plastic clays and lignites, laid down on the 

 Geological Survey Maps as of Pliocene age. In a paper by Mr. 

 J. Starkie Gardner, F.G.S., read before the Club in March, 

 1884, the supposed Pliocene age of these beds is questioned, and 

 the probability of their being older is pointed out. Mr. 

 Swanston also remarked that the silicified wood found in the 

 same neighbourhood was derived from the same source, a 

 statement which he had made before the Club in December 

 1884. A later incident in the history of these interesting plant 

 remains seems to be that during some of the epochs of the 

 Glacial Period these so-called Pliocene beds were much denuded, 

 the softer parts being swept away, while the solid nodules and 

 the silicified wood were scattered in a southern direction, which 

 accounts for their presence in the Boulder Clay at Stoneyford 

 and elsewhere as derived fossils. 



The fourth meeting of the Winter Session was held on Tues- 

 day evening, January 19th, the President in the chair, when a 

 paper was read by the Rev. W. F. Johnson, A.M., F.E.S., on 

 " The Beetles of the Belfast District." The reader said — In 

 dealing with the Coleoptera of the Belfast district I shall not 

 attempt to indicate all the species which have been found 

 within it, but shall touch upon those which are most interesting, 

 and endeavour to select examples from each of the great 

 divisions of the Coleoptera. My information as to the species 

 occurring here has been derived from the lists of the collections 

 of the late A. H. Haliday and R. Patterson, F.R.S., published 

 by the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club ; from some notes on local 

 Coleoptera in the latter gentleman's book Insects mentioned 

 in Shakspere, and from the list compiled by myself from the 

 collection of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical 

 Society, a large number of which were taken in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the city. The family first in order among 

 the Coleoptera is that of the Geodephaga or predacious land 

 beetles. Among the largest and most conspicuous of these are 



