1901-1902.] 47 



agencies, and the crown of the arch ultimately disappeared, 

 leaving the sea-stack or pillar. Encroachments of the sea had 

 taken place even in historic times. The site of ancient Cromer 

 is under sea. Ravenspur, where Henry III. landed in 1399, 

 has completely disappeared. Old maps also record the names 

 of many other places "washed away by the sea" and tracts 

 of land now entirely submerged. Coming to our immediate 

 locality, the County Down coast, photographs were shown of 

 Black Island, New-castle. This is now a band of wrack- 

 covered boulders, exposed at low tides, occupied but a century 

 ago by houses and gardens, a sea embankment protecting 

 the site on the west. The present sea wall is over 300 feet 

 behind the ancient wall. Encroachments at Cultra were also 

 described. Reference was made to the work done by the 

 Committee of the British Association in 1895. The Committee 

 considered that the information laid before them was amply 

 sufficient to show the imperial necessHy for preserving in an 

 efficient manner the area of the country from inroads of the sea. 

 It proved that the work of devastation had beeii largely aided 

 by the abstraction and selling of shingle, sand and cement, 

 stones and other rocks, and by the incorrect designs and founda- 

 tions of many preservation works. 



Miss Walkington, LL.D., then gave an account of the 

 district between Newtownards and Knock. Many of the 

 places described are little known, but on account of their 

 beauty or historic interest are worthy of a visit. 



Mr. James Orr read a short paper on " Sea Urchins," 

 illustrated by lantern slides, in which he said that they are 

 near relatives of the star-fishes, but differ chiefly from them 

 in the fact that they have a shell, which is made up of poly- 

 gonal plates, in most cases fixed together by their edges, and 

 covered with spines. In a regular urchin the shell may be 

 divided into three parts — 1st, the apical disc; 2nd, a series of 

 plates surrounding the mouth ; and 3rd, the remainder of the 

 test termed the corona. The plates of the corona are of two 

 kinds, ambulacral and interambulacral, and are arranged in 

 alternate areas extending from the apical disc, which is on 



