1903-1904.] 



Iproceebinos. 



STJIMinVEEili SESSIOI^T. 



PORT MUCK. 



The first excursion of the Summer Session took place on 

 Saturday, 23rd May, when fifty-two members assembled at 

 the Northern Counties terminus at 9-45 to proceed via Larne 

 to Port Muck, Islandmagee. During the journey down a fine 

 specimen of tne cuttlefish {Eledone cirrosa), captured the 

 previous day in Belfast Harbour, and kindly presented by 

 Mr. W. Redfern Kelly, C.E., to the Larne Marine Laboratory, 

 was exhibited and discussed. Immediately on arrival at 

 Larne Harbour the whole party crossed to Islandmagee, 

 where cars were in waiting, which were used by some of the 

 ladies, and which also carried the provisions, cameras, and 

 collecting-bags of all sorts. The greater number of members 

 preferred to walk, and soon the botanists were at work, the 

 temptation to linger being very great. It was an ideal day 

 for a walking excursion, the gentle breeze off the sea temper- 

 ing the heat of the sun, while all around the chorus of many 

 birds — stay-at-homes like thrush, blackbird, and lark, and 

 welcome visitors like cuckoo, corn-crake, whitethroat, and 

 willow-wren — added another charm and gratified another 

 sense. Presently the road, fringed with great masses of 

 Alexanders {Smyr'nkim Ohisatrum) in flower, was left, and a 

 field-path taken through farms and over the gentle hills, 

 until suddenly we found ourselves looking down on our des- 

 tination, Port Muck, with its white rocks, its white shingle 

 of rolled flints, and its white houses glistening in the sun. A 

 narrow strait divides the Island of Muck from the mainland, 



