1913-1914.] 2 j 



Hugh Robinson and Samuel Alexander Stewart, remained zealous 

 supporters of the Club throughout their lives ; their connection 

 with it was only terminated by their deaths. 



Shortly after its inception the Club held its first field meeting, 

 a large party proceeding under Tate's guidance on 6th April, 

 1863, to study the Secondary rocks at Lame and Islandmagee. 

 During the fifty years which have intervened, a series of Summer 

 meetings of this kind, and of Winter meetings for the reading and 

 discussion of papers, have been held regularly. During these early 

 years we find among the lists of the Officers and Committee the 

 names of many who have long served the Club, or who have won 

 renown in other fields ; among others, George Donaldson, John 

 Grainger, William Gray, G. C. Hyndman, W. H. Phillips, W. H. 

 Patterson, Hugh Robinson, S. A. Stewart, Ralph Tate, Wyville 

 Thompson, William Swanston, and Joseph Wright. These and 

 others, passing on the torch from hand to hand, have left us a 

 fine tradition of devotion to science, and a goodly heritage of 

 accumulated knowledge. 



But it must not be supposed that this Club was uniformly 

 and easily successful in the mission to which it had set itself. 

 Most societies of the kind have their periods of prosperity and of 

 adversity, and the Belfast Club was no exception to the rule. 

 When the first flush of novelty and the first wave of enthusiasm 

 had passed by, there followed troublous times, when it needed all 

 the zeal and perseverance of a devoted few to pull things through, 

 and to pilot the Club to the safe anchorage of an established 

 position and a sound scientific renown. To one man especially 

 our thanks are due for his indomitable energy and the unflinching 

 service which he rendered to the Club at this time. He is with 

 us still, and is in this room to-day ; his name is William Gray. 



A tree is known by its fruit, and the success or non-success 

 of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club may be judged from its 

 printed records. Its seven volumes of " Proceedings," containing 

 accounts of the Summer excursions and Winter lectures of fifty 



