[33 



Proceedings. 



SUJVIJVLER SESSION 



GIANT'S CAUSEWAY. 



The Club inaugurated its forty-sixth year with an excursion 

 to the Giant's Causeway on Saturday, 30th May. Thirty-four 

 members and friends met the Secretary, Mr. Robert Welch, 

 M.R.I.A., on the platform of the Midland Railway; three more 

 members joined at Ballymena. Portrush was reached in 

 scheduled time, and, mounting the three electric cars in waiting, 

 the journey to the Causeway commenced. A short distance from 

 Portrush on the shore road the conductor pointed out the section 

 of indurated lias which caused so much controversy in the 

 geological world some years ago, many geologists considering the 

 rock to belong to the basaltic group ; further study of the northern 

 rocks, however, showed that the mass was a lias slate, indurated 

 by a fused mass of basalt, which in cooling altered into a syenitic 

 greenstone different from the ordinary basalt of Antrim. On 

 reaching the Causeway a brief halt was made at Kane's Royal 

 Hotel, where the Secretary made the announcement that the 

 President, Mr. Robert Patterson, F.L.S., offered a special prize 

 for the best collection of mineral or rock specimens. The 

 Vice-President, Mr. W. H. Gallway, also offered a special prize 

 for the best collection of plants. After resting a short time, Mr 

 Welch led the way down the pathway, and halted again to 

 examine a good example of concretionary trap, made up of 

 spheroidal lumps of various sizes. Mr. T. Dewhurst, of Queen's 

 College, kindly explained the origin and formation of this peculiar 



