1896-97.] 357 



required a larger subscription list to carry it on, and there was 

 no better value to be had. The same remarks applied to the 

 Irish Naturalist, as it needed subscribers to meet the expenses — 

 in fact, it had to be subsidised by private friends. Such a 

 valuable paper should not have to rely upon that source of 

 income. The Club gave every encouragement to special work, 

 and aimed at making all the lectures as popular as possible and 

 open to the public, knowing that those who took an interest in 

 such matters would join the ranks of the Club and assist towards 

 its prosperity. He would call upon Mr. Gray to proceed with 

 his lecture, which would be a great treat, especially at the 

 present time when the Giant's Causeway was perhaps under a 

 cloud — he hoped only for the moment. 



Mr. Gray commenced his lecture, "The Origin and Present 

 Condition of the Giant's Causeway," by stating that the Giant's 

 Causeway was no new subject for the investigation of inquisitive 

 naturalists. It had been discussed by the leading British and 

 foreign scientists since the founding of their oldest scientific 

 societies. But long before they had devoted themselves to the 

 investigation of the peculiarities of the Causeway it had arrested 

 the attention and inspired the wonder and awe of the primitive 

 inhabitants of Ireland — a fact which was verified by the name 

 which had a world-wide reputation — the Giant's Causeway. 

 Primitive man was of necessity an inquisitive naturalist. His 

 very existence depended upon his knowledge of the fauna and 

 flora that surrounded him, and his life's history was influenced 

 by the varied natural phenomena with which he came in 

 contact. He was quick-witted, a keen observer, and attracted 

 by everything that was strange and abnormal in nature. No 

 doubt at a very remote period he was attracted to our shores by 

 the strangely-contrasting masses of black and white rocks that 

 were so conspicuous in the cliffs, the prominent headlands, and 

 caveworn shores of our North coast, and that to-day were 

 acknowledged as forming a geological combination unlike 

 anything else in Great Britain and Ireland. Their evidence of 

 man's early occupation of Antrim was numerous and instructive. 



