1896-97-] 3^7 



Club had the opportunity of accompanying him on his visits to 

 our best sections. Whilst anxiously awaiting the publication 

 of his results, it is pleasant to find that Robert Bell has 

 forwarded to Dr. Hume, amongst many other fossils from 

 Squire's Hill, the first recorded specimens of Holoaster Icevis 

 var. planus and Belemnitella Alfredi ever found in Ireland. 

 The desire to obtain fossils trom the basal cretaceous beds of 

 Murlough Bay resulted in a successful and largely attended 

 excursion to that lovely district on last Easter Monday. 



Once more Professor Cole has visited Belfast, conducting the 

 classes that have now become an annual institution invaluable 

 to the students of petrography, and not less useful to those who 

 care especially to study the relations of various types of rock to 

 one another in the field. Many valuable gifts have been 

 received on behalf of the Club, foremost amongst them is the 

 valuable and beautiful rock-slicing machine, presented by 

 Combe, Barbour, & Combe, who made it after the design 

 of Henry J. Seymour, a member of the Dublin Club, whose 

 temporary residence in Belfast has cemented the friendly 

 feeling between the two clubs. A fine series of specimens 

 procured by L. M. Bell, c.e., from the new waterworks 

 tunnel at Newcastle, show the ordovician slates hardened and 

 altered by intrusive veins and patches of fine-grained Mourne 

 granite, the study of these interesting sections should not be 

 neglected by the Geological Members of the Club, as the 

 opportunity is unique, and may never occur again. Robert 

 Bell's interesting discovery of fire opals in the rhyolites of 

 Sandy Brae, must be recorded, as well as a bed of beautifully 

 perfect leaf remains on the shores of Lough Neagh between 

 Toome and Randalstown. The bed has evidently been pre- 

 served by a covering of boulder clay which is still visible further 

 inland, erratics lying over the leaf beds seeming to be the 

 remnants of its former extension to the lake. Cranfield point 

 lies about half a mile north east of the bed, which deserves 

 further investigation, only R. Bell and S. A. Stewart having as 

 yet visited it. 



