42 8 [Proc. B.N.F.C.. 



deeply immersed in the final work connected with his Flora ; but 

 it was owing to his strong encouragement and unstinted assistance 

 that I undertook their examination, and was enabled to make a 

 further contribution to the history of these important local deposits. 

 Had Stewart been still in his prime I cannot but think that the 

 fine opportunity for further research which occurred during the 

 construction of the great dock now just completed would not 

 have been lost. 



In 1 88 1 he produced another important paper on local 

 Geology. For years he had neglected no chance of examining 

 the Glacial drifts, and searching especially for the scattered fossils 

 which they contain. He now brought together the published and 

 unpublished material into one paper, "The Mollusca of the 

 Boulder-Clay of the North-East of Ireland," a paper which, despite 

 much energetic work on the local Glacial deposits during the last 

 twenty years, has not been superseded. 



But it is not by his published papers alone that the work 

 of S. A. Stewart must be judged. His constant usefulness and 

 helpfulness, his cheerful encouragement did much for the advance- 

 ment of Natural Science in Belfast. Stewart was undoubtedly a 

 product of this Club, and its most remarkable product. Without 

 the comradeship, the community of tastes, the friendly rivalry, 

 which he found amongst its members, it is probable that he would 

 never have achieved the position which he held among us. And 

 on the other hand, I believe that he exercised a profound 

 influence on the fortunes of this Society. For forty years he gave 

 us his services on the Committee, refusing the offices of greater 

 dignity, but perhaps less direct usefulness, which were offered him. 

 He was a court of appeal in almost every branch of Science. His 

 fine simple character, too, had its effect; and in several features by 

 which this Club has been distinguished from some more pretentious 

 organizations in other places — in its love of practical work, its 

 esprit de corps, its absence of dilletantism — I fancy one may trace 

 the influence of our old fellow-member. 



