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



that they are likely soon to be flush with the rest of the shore, 

 it would be hard to say, but the other changes that have 

 occurred seem to indicate a greater increase in the scour of the 

 tides. In fact, the shore is no longer predominancy sandy. 



Although not strictly belonging to my subject to-night, it is 

 worth taking a retrospective glance at earlier changes along the 

 shore nearer Belfast. Before the Northern Counties Railway 

 was made, the sea came quite up to the Shore Road, and 

 basaltic stone was quarried near Fortwilliam and also close to 

 the present Greencastle station. The railway embankment 

 was partly constructed from materials taken off the shore, 

 where huge holes were left, many feet in depth, and frequented 

 by large eels. There was a mussel-bed accessible when the 

 tide was out, between the present Whitehouse and Greencastle 

 stations, with a great number of scattered boulders, 3 or 4 feet 

 high, where boys used to play hide and seek. When the late 

 John Thomson, of Low Wood, made what is known as 

 " Thomson's Cut," leading to the basin at Whitehouse Coast- 

 guard Station, to enable boats from his yacht to obtain access 

 to the shore at all states of the tide, these boulders were blasted, 

 and used to form the long pier that runs out beside the " cut." 

 More recently shingle and sand have been deposited near 

 Whitehouse station ; and there are now vast spaces of sand 

 nearer town, where I have sometimes, upon a holiday, counted 

 between 30 and 40 people gathering cockles. These districts, 

 within the period I refer to, were soft mud, quite impassable, 

 unless the travellers were provided with large flat boards 

 attached to their feet. 



About the year 1862 the Government took over the foreshore, 

 and granted leases of it to those whose property ran along the 

 coast. Much damage to the foundations of sea walls had 

 resulted from the operations of so-called " freestone gatherers " 

 and from the amount of sand carried off" the shoie by lighters. 

 I remember seeing two or three men and women opposite 

 Macedon diligently occupied during low tide in digging and 

 breaking up the green " freestone " or marl, and tramping off 



