20 [Proo. B.N.F.C., 



of the Club, whose presence with us to-day adds so much to the 

 interest and pleasure of the present meeting. Beside them, I 

 am quite a junior member; it is only thirty-six years since I 

 attended my first excursion, at the age of eleven years ; but 

 I am the more honoured that this task has devolved upon me. 



The Belfast Club may be said fairly to owe its inception to 

 that oft-abused body, the Science and Art Department. It i860 

 the system of science classes, which had been inaugurated in 

 England some years previously, was extended to Ireland, the first 

 course carried out being a series of lectures on Geology by J. 

 Bete Jukes. In the following year, under a more organized 

 management, Ralph Tate was appointed to carry on the geological 

 teaching begun by Jukes, and the scheme of lectures was soon 

 extended to include Zoology, Botany, and Physiology. It says 

 much for the skill of the teacher, and for the industry and aptitude 

 of his pupils — at least one of whom is here to-day — that out of 

 thirteen first-class prizes and eight medals awarded in the United 

 Kingdom for Geology during the first year of Tate's tuition, eleven 

 of the former and six of the latter fell to his pupils. 



The interest aroused by these lectures, and the friendships 

 formed among the students, suggested the continuation, in some 

 form, of these concerted scientific studies ; so when in January, 

 1863, a letter appeared in the Northern Whig advocating the 

 formation of a Naturalists' Field Club such as already existed in 

 many English towns, it was warmly responded to by two of Tate's 

 successful students. The three correspondents met, and a 

 document was prepared setting forth a draft constitution for a 

 Natural History Club. When this was laid before the members 

 of Tate's classes, the warm reception which it received justified 

 the calling of a public meeting, at which the Club was formally 

 inaugurated. Of the three young men whose letters in the press 

 formed the germ from which the Club sprang, one, W. T. Chew, 

 the author of the first communication, left Belfast for London, 

 after piloting the new Society through its first year ; the other two, 



