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A SUMMERS DREDGING IN BELFAST LOUGH. 



The Zoological Section held their first meeting for the Winter 

 Session in the Museum, College Square North, on Wednesday 

 evening, 9th December. The President (Mr. Robert Patterson, 

 F.LS.) occupied the chair. The Vice-President (Mr. W. H. 

 Gallway) had arranged to lay before the meeting a summary of his 

 work while dredging in Belfast Lough last summer. He said 

 that the Ulster Fisheries and Biology Association having decided 

 in the Spring of the present year to transfer their Laboratory from 

 Lame Harbour to Bangor, he was appointed Honorary Naturalist. 

 It was part of his duties to take out the Association's steam launch 

 and dredge for material to supply the members who took up the 

 study of the various groups. He had brought a large number of 

 specimens of marine animals, alive and in spirits, which could be 

 referred to as they were named. Mr. Gallway described the 

 dredge, its uses, and mode of working, and then entered on a 

 description of the various animals met with on his expeditions. 

 As might be expected, the Annelides, or Worms, form a very 

 numerous class, many of them being objects of great beauty. 

 Especially is this the case with the Sabella, Terebella, and Serpula, 

 and the lovely Nereis. A very remarkable member of this family 

 is the Sea-mouse, Aphrodite aculeata. Among the Mollusca, the 

 strange Sea-hare, Aplysia, attracts our attention. When handled 

 the animal ejects a deep purple dye of an intense and beautiful 

 shade. Another Mollusc, Scaphander lignarius, is peculiar in that 

 it has a lovely orange-coloured shell on the outside of the body to 

 protect the vital parts. The pretty Philine, which grows to the 

 length of one and a quarter inch, is white, and has a delicate and 

 pure white shell inside the body. Among the Zoophytes described 

 were the lovely Sea-pen, Virguiaria mirabilis, and the Dead-men's 

 fingers, Alcyoniu?n digitatum* Of Sea Anemones the loveliest 

 were the curious Adamsia palliata and the Actinoloba dianthus. 

 A specimen of the Plumose Anemone brought up in the dredge 



